By ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi-
No fewer than 43,000 health workers in Bauchi have registered to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The Chairman of the Bauchi State Task Force on COVID-19, Senator Baba Tela, disclosed this in his speech during the flag-off of the Oxford – AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccination which was held at the Banquet Hall of the Goverment House, Bauchi on Saturday.
NATIONAL ACCORD reports that Bauchi State received the first batch of 80,570 doses of the Oxford – AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines from the National Primary Health Care Development Agency out of the 150,000 allocated to the state.
Those who were first vaccinated in Bauchi state include Governor Bala Mohammed, his wife Aisha, the Deputy Governor Baba Tela; The State’s PDP Chairman, Hamza Akuyam; the Chief of Staff Goverment House, Dr. Ladan Salihu.
Others are: the Bauchi State Head of Service, Aliyu Jibo; Commissioner of Health, Dr. Aliyu Maigoro; Executive Chairman, Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Rilwan Mohammed; Personal Physician to the governor, Murtala Abubakar, top government officials religious and traditional rulers, journalists, among others.
Senator Tela, who is also the Bauchi State Deputy Governor, said that the exercise would take place within the next 10 days.
He promised that the State Government would ensure that the exercise was as easy as possible for people to access.
He said: “We have put in place the modalities whereby we transport the vaccines to all the twenty LGAs, to all the 323 Primary Health Centres in the wards and also to the 18 general hospitals chosen by the National Primary HealthCare Development Agency as administration centres”.
“We are going to make it as easy as possible for people to come and get vaccinated.
“As the protocol says, after the flagging off ceremony, we will start with the Health workers and in Bauchi, we have about 43,000 registered health workers who have come up to register for the vaccination.
“After that, we will continue to administer people until we exhaust the first set of the vaccines.”
Earlier in his welcome address, the Commissioner of Health, Dr. Aliyu Maigoro, called on the people to be mindful of the side effects and report same to the appropriate authorities.
He said: “This is a new vaccine, so we should be careful in reporting anything we see in terms of side effects. Scientifically, even paracetamol you take, is also harmful, not just the vaccine”.
“As a Scientist, we expect that if there is any side effects of headache, dizziness, body pains and even high temperature are all expected and there is provision where you can take some medications or if there is severe reactions, you should report it”.
“Even though, we are assured by the federal government and NAFDAC, that this brand that was brought to Nigeria is safe but we still have to be careful and watchful of any effect that may occur and report it appropriately.”