PATRICK ABANG, Calabar –
No fewer than 120,000 people would be vaccinated in the second phase of COVID-19 vaccination exercise in Cross River State.
The Director General of the state’s Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Janet Ekpenyong, disclosed this on Saturday during the official flagged off of the second phase of Covid-19 vaccination exercise in Calabar.
Dr. Ekpenyong said about 105, 000 doses of Mordena and 11, 000 Astrazeneca vaccines doses have been received by the state, so far.
She said about 120,000 people in the state are expected to be vaccinated and called on the people to come forward for the excercise to avoid mutation of the virus.
According to her, “The COVID-19 keeps mutating and has caused a lot of havoc globally so this underscores the need to ensure people are vaccinated.
“We have 105, 000 doses of Mordena for people coming for the vaccination for the first time and 11,000 Astrazeneca vaccines for people coming for the second dose.
“Much is expected of us to get almost 120,000 people vaccinated and we are poised to actualised this”, she said.
She thanked the health workers in the state for ensuring that the state emerged the best state in terms of vaccination, adding that they want to maintain that position during this exercise.
On her part, Dr. Betta Edu, the State Commissioner for Health, commended the governor for providing support as well as the health workers for ensuring the state achieve 117% coverage of the target population during the last exercise.
She advised residents to come out for vaccination and not take the pandemic as a joke.
“Cross Riverians should just come out enmasse and get vaccinated as we are presently in the 3rd wave of the pandemic in the state.
“The number of confirmed cases through the PCR is rising so it’s important people come out for vaccination immediately.
“Beyond the vaccination, we must continue to observe all the COVID-19 protocols”, she said.
She said the vaccine would be available across the state as well as all the hard to reach areas of the state.
She said people who have died of COVID-19 are those who have not taken the vaccine so people should come out and take it.
Also speaking, Joy Chabo the state Immunization Officer, said the state has recieved the highest number of vaccines in the South South, because of its impressive performance during the last phase of the vaccination.
She said the Delta Variant has not yet been found in the state but called on people to come out for vaccination to ensure the state has immunity.
A representative from the WHO, Dr. Pella Umar commended the zeal of the state in fighting the virus which ensured it recorded 117% during the first round.
He called on all to embrace the vaccination so as to boost the herd immunity of the entire population by at least 95%.