•Over 76 million Nigerians vaccinated
•Ministry to commence vaccination at airports, other border posts
Onyebuichi Ezigbo in Abuja
The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, has said the country did not witness any increase in the number of persons hospitalised as a result of COVID-19 infections during the yuletide.
He also said the sub-lineages partly responsible for the current increase in COVID-19 cases in other countries, such as XBB.1.5 and BF.7 COVID-19 variants were yet to detected in the country as at November 2022.
The minister said these just as the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), which provided an update on vaccination, said as of Monday, January 9 2023, 76,161,470 eligible persons had received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccines in Nigeria, representing 65.7 per cent of eligible population.
It said 64,094,498 persons had also been fully vaccinated.
As a precautionary measure against the COVID-19 as well as other variants of the virus that may be imported into the country, the minister advised that Nigerians who had received second vaccination to take the booster jabs as it has been proven to give extra immunity.
He said administering of booster shots was now being encouraged by the federal government because of the affirmation by WHO that those with vaccine booster shots were less likely to fall sick or die from COVID-19 infection.
While providing updates of COVID-19 infections and treatment, Ehanire said: “In Nigeria, we have had 5,708,974 samples tested, 266,463 confirmed cases, 259,850 discharged cases and unfortunately 3,155 deaths have been recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).”
The minister also said based on confirmed data, COVID-19 has continued to follow a different epidemiological course in Nigeria and most of Africa, with lesser cases, admissions, and deaths from the Omicron sub-lineages.
He said the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) led COVID-19 emergency operation unit was closely monitoring the rise in the new Omicron sub-lineages XBB.1.5 in the UK and US, as well as the current resurgence COVID-19 trends in China, and other countries with a high volume of traffic to and from Nigeria.
“We are working to complete testing and analysis for December 2022. Since the detection of the Omicron variant in December 2021, its sub-lineages (BQ.1/BQ.1.1) has been dominant in Nigeria also as seen in other parts of the world.
“It is important to note that regardless of COVID-19 variants in different parts of the world, severe disease, admissions, and deaths disproportionately affect the unvaccinated and those with established risk factors thus – older people, people with co-morbidities etc,” he said.
The minister further said the most important action for Nigerians to take was to get vaccinated against COVID-19, as the vaccine remains the most important intervention for preventing severe disease, hospitalisation, and death.
Additionally, Ehanire said though the COVID-19 protocols and restrictions have eased, people at high risk for severe COVID-19 were advised to continue to adhere to the recommended non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPIs) such as the use of facemasks, good hand and respiratory hygiene and avoidance of crowded spaces.
While answering questions on the efforts by the ministry to check possible import of the newer COVID-19 variants, the Director Port Health Services said the staff were keeping vigilance at the airports and other ports entry to the country.
He added that the department would start checking the vaccination status of passengers arriving the and would commence vaccination of those who have not do so on their arrival.
He complained that most in-bound passengers were not taken advantage of the online platform to declare their vaccination status, hence the decision to enforce regulations at the international airports more structly.
On his part, the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib disclosed that, “as at Monday January 9 2023, 76,161,470 eligible persons have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccines in Nigeria, representing 65.7 per cent of our eligible population. 64,094,498 persons have been fully vaccinated and this represents 55.3 per cent of our eligible population. 9,892,018 have received their booster doses.”
He explained that this year has witnessed an increase in the number of eligible population from 111,773,503 to 115,983,921 as a result of increase in number of persons who turned 18 years.
