Group plans to vaccinate 50,000 residents against COVID-19 in Gombe
By Chima Azubuike
Gombe State map
Chima Azubuike
No fewer than 50,000 persons are expected to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in Gombe, following the partnership between the Centre for Integrated Health Programmes, and Kishimi Shelter and Care Foundation.
According to the Executive Director of the foundation, Grace Samuel, the partnership was geared toward scaling up the uptake of COVID-19 vaccination, noting that there are shortfalls the intervention would bridge.
She revealed that the three-month intervention would spread across four Local Government Areas, providing sensitisation and mobilisation to rural dwellers on the importance of the COVID-19 vaccine.
She said, "We have started with our staff, I also received mine today, we have inoculated over 100 people. It is a three-month campaign and the expected number is 50,000 people in Gombe, Akko, Yalmatu Deba and Balanga.
"Other Community-Based Organisations are working in other local government areas. What CIHP is doing is covering the 11 Local Government Areas.
"Coronavirus has come to be with us, so we need to find ways of coping with it just like we use other vaccines like polio, etc.
"We usually give people the opportunity to ask questions, telling them that it is not compulsory but if they are convinced and they feel they want to take it we usually give them the opportunity."
Samuel noted that their intervention was geared toward ensuring that communities were properly educated about COVID-19, bearing in mind the type of information shared with the people.
"We want to see the scale-up of the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine. We have had a meeting with the Primary Healthcare Development Agency and we discovered that there are gaps, the uptake is slow.
"We as foot soldiers in the community will mobilise people for the uptake, a lot of mobilisation has been done but more of this has been in the centre more at the state level. What we are trying to do is to take it right down to the Local Government Areas and communities," she added.
#COVID-19 vaccination in Gombe
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