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General News of Tuesday, 26 January 2021

Source: www.mynigeria.com

Lagos targets 60 per cent vaccine roll-out

Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has launched his administration's plan on coronavirus vaccine rollout and the effort to bolster mass vaccination of residents.

According to the governor, the state is aiming to achieve 60 per cent vaccine rollout when the vaccination programme begins in the coming weeks, stressing that the figure would help check the rate of transmission and build the resilience of the state against the ravaging virus, The Nations reports.

Sanwo-Olu, who spoke on “Sunday Politics”, a live television programme anchored by Channels TV’s Kayode Okikiolu, also explained activities of his administration since inception and other germane issues around the development of Lagos.

The governor said his administration did not have the plan to make the COVID-19 vaccine available to all residents, as the state may not have the resources to do that, according to The Nations.

According to him, critical segments in the state population would be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity against the pandemic.

Aside from the vaccine arrangement being made by the Federal Government for states, Sanwo-Olu said Lagos, which is the epicentre of COVID-19 infection, had activated plans to augment the vaccine that would be delivered to the state.

He said: “As a sovereign, we want the Federal Government to take the lead in getting the vaccine. As a sub-national government, we are taking our destiny into our own hand. We have started a conversation with some of the vaccine manufacturers. I have made contact with Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca. Developers of Moderna have written to us and we have written back to them.

“We are making our own sub-national contacts and part of the things to come out of this effort is that, once we see what the national government is doing in terms of protocols, then we can plan for our rollout. The contacts we made with vaccine developers are at the board level.

“We don’t have to vaccinate the whole of 22 million people in Lagos. The plan is around ensuring that there is herd immunity and that typically speaks to 50 to 60 per cent of our population. That’s the target we need to really meet in vaccine rollout.”