Stakeholders at a one-day Covid-19 engagement and orientation meeting in Awka have called for all hands to be on deck to improve the coverage of COVID-19 in Anambra state.
The meeting which is supported by Canada Global Initiative for Vaccine Equity, CanGive, grant and World Health Organization, WHO, was attended by various religious groups, Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, the academia, representatives of the Muslim community, people from the private sector, the media, among others.
Speaking during the engagement and orientation meeting, the Anambra State WHO Technical Assistant for COVID-19, Mrs. Truth Ezeudoye said that CanGive is a support from the Canadian government to assist fifteen states in Nigeria which did not do well in the coverage of their COVID-19 in priority areas to scale up the coverage in the areas which Anambra is one of them, and listed the priority areas to include health workers, pregnant women, the elderly and those with Co-mobidities.
Mrs. Ezeudoye revealed that only abysmally eight percent of Anambra health workers have completed the COVID-19 vaccine, and explained that the meeting was to educate the stakeholders for them to go back to their various domains and sensitize those who fall under the priority areas on the need for them to take the vaccine.
The Anambra State Health Educator, Mrs. Uju Onwuegbusi during her lecture, urged participants to leverage on all the existing platforms to correct myths and misconceptions about the COVID-19 in their localities for the state to achieve its aim of covering the priority areas and others.
The Director of Disease Control and Immunization in Anambra State Primary Healthycare Development Agency, Dr. Nnamdi Uliagbafusi in a remark noted that the state wants to improve its coverage in COVID-19 vaccination, especially in the priority areas, saying that a situation where only eight percent of Anambra health workers who are giving the vaccine is vaccinated, is highly unacceptable.
For the National Primary Health Care Development Agency’s Anambra State Coordinator, Mr. Obioha Agbakwuru, the meeting was a huge opportunity for the stakeholders to discuss how the COVID-19 vaccination will also get to the vulnerable groups in the state.
The State Immunization Officer, Mrs. Edith Onwuka among others equally delivered lectures during the meeting.
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