The Lagos State Government on Wednesday announced that the state may commence the administering of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday, March 11.
The state Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu disclosed this when the World Health Organization (WHO) representative to Nigeria, Dr Walter Mulombo paid a courtesy visit to him at Lagos House, Ikeja
He said that the Federal Government had given the state a total of 507,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine and that plans were in place to begin administering.
“We are truly grateful that they (Federal Government) can give us that number. We want a lot more.
“We have the Vaccine Steering Committee that we have put in place, which has both the private sector and public sector practitioners.
“They have designed a robust vaccine implementation strategy, and identified the various levels of our citizens and what order we are going to be administering the doses that we have.
“With all of that now and working with the Primary Health Board at the state level, we will start administering it, maybe from tomorrow (Thursday) or as they planned.
“We have a robust process that shows we are ready and capable to administer those things in the days, weeks and months ahead.
“We need to explain to our citizens and help them see that indeed, the vaccine is needed, helpful and will help the level of resistance, especially the first-line health workers, those with underlining health issues and the senior citizens among us,” Sanwo-Olu said.