Coronavirus
Covid-19: Lagos vaccinates over 127,000 persons in 10 days
The Lagos State Government has announced it has successfully vaccinated over 120,000 Lagosians since the exercise commenced.
The Lagos State Government has said that at least 127,885 Lagosians have taken the Covid -19 vaccine, 10 days after the exercise began.
This disclosure was made by the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi after he received reports of Day 10 of the exercise from the State Primary Health Care Board.
While highlighting the demography and categories of vaccinated persons, Abayomi explained that 39,959 health workers, 54,200 essential workers and 33,726 strategic leaders, representing 31.2%, 42.4% and 26.40% respectively, have so far been vaccinated. This figure puts Lagos state ahead of other states in the country (including the Federal Capital Territory) in terms of the number of vaccinated persons.
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What the Lagos State Commissioner for Health is saying
Abayomi in his statement said, “Our gender distribution data has also shown that we have vaccinated more females than males, with 65,501 females representing 51.2% and 62,384 males representing 48.8% vaccinated as of March 26.’’
The commissioner stated that Eti-Osa, Ikeja, Lagos Mainland, Alimosho, Kosofe and Surulere are the top six Local Government Areas with the highest number of persons vaccinated, adding that 12,313 and 12,135 persons were vaccinated in Eti-Osa and Ikeja respectively.
He added, “In Lagos Mainland LGA, we have vaccinated 11,791 persons; in Alimosho LGA, 9,783 people have received the COVID vaccine. For Kosofe and Surulere we have vaccinated 9,723 and 8,903 persons.’’
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Apapa, Epe, Badagry and Ibeju-Lekki local governments have the least number of citizens vaccinated, with less than 3,500 persons vaccinated for each.
Abayomi noted that the exercise has been extended by 10 days, in line with the directive of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), adding that the vaccination will continue at the 88 vaccination sites in Lagos for only citizens that fall within the Phase One category.
Those in this category include health and frontline workers, senior citizens aged 70 years and above, essential duty staff and strategic leaders.
The Commissioner said the State Government was not oblivious of the challenges being experienced by eligible persons at some vaccination sites, which include overcrowding at some vaccination sites and the E-registration portal.
He gave assurances that efforts were being made by the state government in collaboration with NPHCDA to address these challenges.
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In case you missed it
- It can be recalled that about 2 weeks ago, the Lagos State Government released a list of 88 health facilities spread across 20 Local Government Areas (LGAs), for Covid-19 vaccination for Lagosians.
- The State’s Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, explained that the first phase of the exercise is for healthcare workers, Covid-19 response team, officials of ports of entry (air, land, and seaports), laboratory network, judiciary, military, police, other security agencies, petrol station attendants, schools, members of the press, and other frontline workers.
- He noted that the second phase is for people aged 50 years and above as well as those living with co-morbidities who are between 18 to 49 years.
- The commissioner said the third phase is for people in the LGAs with the highest burden of disease and those who could not take part in the first two phases while phase four is for other eligible citizens.
Business News
COVID-19 Update in Nigeria
On the 22nd of April 2021, 100 new confirmed cases were recorded in Nigeria.
The spread of novel Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) in Nigeria continues to record significant increases as the latest statistics provided by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control reveal Nigeria now has 164,588 confirmed cases.
On the 22nd of April 2021, 100 new confirmed cases were recorded in Nigeria.
To date, 164,588 cases have been confirmed, 154,578 cases have been discharged and 2,061 deaths have been recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
A total of 1.84 million tests have been carried out as of 22nd April 20th, 2021 compared to 1.81 million tests a day earlier.
COVID-19 Case Updates- 22nd April 2021,
- Total Number of Cases – 164,588
- Total Number Discharged – 154,578
- Total Deaths – 2,061
- Total Tests Carried out – 1,838,174
According to the NCDC, the 65 new cases are reported from 9 states- Taraba (64), Lagos (21), Abuja (4), Rivers (3), Akwa Ibom (2), Kaduna (2), Oyo (2), Bauchi (1), and Nasarawa (1).
Meanwhile, the latest numbers bring Lagos state total confirmed cases to 58,209, followed by Abuja (19,754), Plateau (9,049), Kaduna (9,036), Rivers (7,070), Oyo (6,842), Edo (4,898), Ogun (4,647), Kano (3,942), Ondo (3,226), Kwara (3,120), Delta (2,617), Osun (2,572), Nasarawa (2,380), Enugu (2,281), Katsina (2,097), Gombe (2,034), Ebonyi (2,020), Anambra (1,909), Akwa Ibom (1,843), and Abia (1,683).
Imo State has recorded 1,655 cases, Bauchi (1,540), Borno (1,337), Benue (1,188), Adamawa (1,063), Niger (930), Taraba (910), Bayelsa (885), Ekiti (869), Sokoto (775), Jigawa (527), Kebbi (450), Cross River (394), Yobe (365), Zamfara (240), while Kogi state has recorded 5 cases only.
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Lock Down and Curfew
In a move to combat the spread of the pandemic disease, President Muhammadu Buhari directed the cessation of all movements in Lagos and the FCT for an initial period of 14 days, which took effect from 11 pm on Monday, 30th March 2020.
The movement restriction, which was extended by another two weeks period, has been partially put on hold with some businesses commencing operations from May 4. On April 27th, 2020, Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari declared an overnight curfew from 8 pm to 6 am across the country, as part of new measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19. This comes along with the phased and gradual easing of lockdown measures in FCT, Lagos, and Ogun States, which took effect from Saturday, 2nd May 2020, at 9 am.
On Monday, 29th June 2020 the federal government extended the second phase of the eased lockdown by 4 weeks and approved interstate movement outside curfew hours with effect from July 1, 2020. Also, on Monday 27th July 2020, the federal government extended the second phase of eased lockdown by an additional one week.
On Thursday, 6th August 2020 the federal government through the secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 announced the extension of the second phase of eased lockdown by another four (4) weeks.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State announced the closed down of the Eti-Osa Isolation Centre, with effect from Friday, 31st July 2020. He also mentioned that the Agidingbi Isolation Centre would also be closed and the patients relocated to a large capacity centre.
Due to the increased number of covid-19 cases in Nigeria, the Nigerian government ordered the reopening of Isolation and treatment centres in the country on Thursday, 10th December 2020.
On 26th January 2021, the Federal Government announced the extension of the guidelines of phase 3 of the eased lockdown by one month following the rising cases of the coronavirus disease in the country and the expiration of phase 3 of the eased lockdown.
On 28th February 2021, the federal government confirmed that the first tranche of Covid-19 vaccines will arrive in Nigeria on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021.
On Tuesday, 2nd March 2021, the National Primary health Care Development Agency announced the arrival of the expected COVX Astrazeneca/Oxford covid-19 vaccines.
On Saturday, 6th March 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari and his vice, Yemi Osinbajo received vaccination against the covid-19 as the State House in Abuja.
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Coronavirus
FG explains how the Covid-19 vaccines work and their composition
The NPHCDA Director said that Covid-19 vaccine candidates are of various categories based on their mechanism of action.
The Federal Government through the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has explained the composition of the Covid-19 vaccines and how they work.
This is as some of them have been approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization (WHO) and some countries, while others are still at different phases of clinical trials for possible approval.
According to a report from the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), this insight was given by the Executive Director/Chief Executive of NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib, who said there were several COVID-19 vaccine candidates.
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He said that Covid-19 vaccine candidates are of various categories based on their mechanism of action such as the inactivated or weakened virus vaccines.
He explained that the idea behind the formulation of an inactivated or weakened virus vaccine is to elicit an immune response without causing the disease itself. Shuaib also said there were protein-based vaccines, which used harmless fragments of proteins or protein shells that mimic the Covid-19 virus to safely generate an immune response.
He added that the viral vector vaccines used a virus that had been genetically engineered to produce coronavirus proteins to safely generate an immune response and not give rise to the disease.
Going further, Shuaib pointed out that the Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) and Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) vaccines employed a cutting-edge approach that used genetically engineered RNA or DNA to generate a protein that safely prompted an immune response.
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What you should know
- It can be recalled that on March 2, 2021, Nigeria received the first set of about 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute in India and shipped via the COVAX Facility, a partnership between CEPI, Gavi, UNICEF and WHO.
- A few days ago, the Executive Director of NPHCDA disclosed that a total of 8,491 Nigerians have reacted adversely to the AstraZeneca inoculation since the exercise began on March 15.
- He said that Nigeria recorded 52 cases of moderate to severe incidents of Adverse Effects Following Immunisation (AEFI), presented as fever, vomiting, diarrhoea headaches, dizziness and allergic reactions.
- About 1.09 million Nigerians have so far been administered the first dose of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.
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