By Abiola Olawale
The Lagos State Government has announced the locations of the 88 centres set up for the administration of the Coronavirus vaccine in the state.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State and his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat had received the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine on March 12, following the arrival of about 507, 742 doses of the vaccine on 9th of March, 2021.
Meanwhile, Prof. Akin Abayomi, the Commissioner for Health, Lagos State, disclosed on Tuesday that the state has officially begun the administration of the vaccines on Monday, 15th of March, 2021, in the 88 accredited health facilities, which cut across all 20 Local Governments of the States.
Abayomi also disclosed that the pre-registration form for the vaccine is now open on the https://www.nphcdaict.com.ng or https://www.vaccination.gov.ng. He also noted that though the registration is open to the public, only individuals who qualifyfor the phase 1 of the programme are eligible to register at the moment.
This was contained in a statement issued by the Lagos State Commissioner for Health.
According to the statement, the rollout of the vaccines will be conducted in four phases, with the health workers, COVID-19 response team, security agencies, teachers, press members, among others, are all prioritised in the phase 1 of the administration of the vaccine.
The phase 2 will feature people aged 50 years and above as well as those living with co-morbidities who are between age 16-49. Phase 3 will feature people in the local governments with the highest burden of disease as well as those who missed phase 1 and 2, while Phase 4 will feature all eligible population.
The commissioner, also noted that a total of 268 persons were vaccinated on the flag-off ceremony while about 4,954 persons have also received the vaccine since then.
Abayomi also disclosed that AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine has been declared safe by the World Health Organization (WHO), noting the vaccine has some common side effects, which are not unique to the COVID-19 vaccine and which are typical to vaccine between for 24 to 48 hours of their administration.
According to him, some of these common adverse events that could be experienced include: pain or tenderness at the injection site, tiredness, chills, join pains, headache, fever, muscle pain and nausea.
