Coronavirus: Lagos receives another 57,000 vaccine doses

Lagos State has received another batch of AstraZeneca vaccine from the Federal government, the Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, has disclosed.

The commissioner said this at a press briefing on Wednesday on the 'Prevention of Third Wave of COVID-19 in Lagos State'.

Abayomi said the state received 57,000 doses of vaccine to vaccinate another 28,000 of Lagos population, in addition to the first batch received by the state.

“In addition to the 507,000 doses that we got from the federal government, we have also received in the last few days, an additional consignment of 57,000 doses of AstraZeneca.”

Abayomi said some portion of the extra vaccines received will be used in the “ring vaccination strategy” just developed by the state.

Newsmen reported how the state vaccinated over 200,000 people in the first round of vaccination.

Abayomi said residents from Lagos Mainland, Kosofe and Surulere local governments were the most recipients in the first phase, with the administration of second doses to start in “two weeks.”

Explaining the ‘ring vaccination' strategy, Abayomi said it is a strategy for preventing the spread of the virus in which family members of individuals who turn positive to COVID-19 will be vaccinated.

“A number of people who are coming into Lagos are turning positive. Those individuals by nationality are Nigerians returning from countries like India and China into Lagos. Those are the group of travellers who on arrival are turning positive on Day 7 of home isolation.

“What we are trying to do is to use some of the new vaccines in ring vaccination. When we get someone that has turned positive, we will be deploying some of the vaccines to vaccinate members of their immediate households to stop the transmission of the virus from the traveller to people that live in the same home,” the commissioner explained.

Abayomi said with the ring strategy, the government hopes to reduce the chances of a third wave, adding that the vaccine has proven to be effective in protecting people from the adverse effects of COVID-19, although it does not prevent people from contracting the infection.

“While it may not protect you from contracting the virus, it certainly protects you from being critically ill and suffers fatal illness as a result of COVID-19,” he said.

“We are not resting, we are preparing and building resilience to ensure that we make it difficult for a mutant or new strain virus to enter Lagos and if it should, that we stop it from being transmitted into communities.

“We have built 10 sample collection and oxygen centres across the state. The facilities will allow people to get tested and receive emergency oxygen,” the commissioner said.

He added that the state is doing all it can to prevent a third wave of the pandemic.