The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said that 143,387 health workers are to be vaccinated against coronavirus (COVID-19) that claimed many lives in Borno. The targeted front line health workers are drawn from insurgency affected states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe in the northeast. UNICEF’s Immunization Officer, Mohammed Ibrahim disclosed this Wednesday in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital. According to him, the exercise is being implemented under the first phase of the vaccination drive of UNICEF in insurgency affected states.
He said that the health worker are the most at risk; as they continually interact with COVID-19 infected persons in the front lines of northeast. “As part of Phase 1, Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states are included in the vaccine launch. “A total of 143,387 health workers from these states are expected to be vaccinated,” he said; disclosing that the vaccination exercise is to commence today (Wednesday) in the six states of the region. In a breakdown of the COVID-19 health workers; he said Borno has the highest number of health workers, with 55,255, while Yobe state has 33,997 health personnel scheduled to be vaccinated this week under the first phase.
He said the phase II vaccination targets the vaccination of the remaining health workers and those aged 50 years and above. “The phase three targets those with co-morbidities under 50-year old residents,” he said. He also explained that phase IV would target the population of people at risk with a high burden of disease. He said UNICEF worked with the Borno State Government to facilitate the training of more health workers. According to him, the training was to improve the capacity of the resource persons in community engagement and demand creations and vaccine management. Other engagements include cold chain and waste management, service delivery and surveillance.
