From Gyang Bere, Jos
The Plateau State Government said the first batch of 105,600 COVID-19 vaccine doses delivered to the state would be administered to frontline health workers and persons who are above the age of 50 years.
The Secretary to the Government of Plateau State, Prof Danladi Atu, and the Commissioner of Health, Dr Ndam Lar, disclosed this after inspecting the cold room where the vaccine is stored at the state secretariat in Jos on Wednesday.
Dr Lar allayed the fears of citizens that the vaccine has negative effects, explaining that the vaccine will not prevent infection of COVID-19.
The medical expert explained that the vaccine is meant to suppress the harmful effects of the COVID-19 virus in the human body and also prevent death.
Dr Lar said every individual needs to be vaccinated twice, 12 weeks after the first vaccination for effective results.
‘The first people are frontline workers and strategic leaders. And the second one is going to people who are 50 years and above, the third one are those who are going to have some form of indications while the fourth is the general that everybody will take it,’ he said.
The Commissioner of Health said the COVID-19 vaccine is stored at a temperature of between +2 to +8 degree centigrade to maintain its efficacy.
Prof Atu said the vaccine will be administered to citizens of the state next week after the ongoing training of ad hoc health workers who will administer the doses to people.
‘I can officially confirm now that Plateau State has received her own version of the COVID-19 vaccine. We are fully prepared for this, a lot of training and engagements have been on to ensure that people who are going to administer this to people and also educate citizens on the need to take the vaccine.
‘The whole processes are in four phases, first is the frontline workers, the critical members of the task force and other stakeholders.
‘We want to thank our partners the UNICEF and World Health Organization (WHO) who have been training our personnel and they have been doing wonderfully well for Plateau State,’ he said.