Gov Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, on Tuesday inaugurated the COVID-19 Oxford Astrazeneca vaccination saying that it was safe and free of charge for all citizens.
Ugwuanyi made this disclosure on Tuesday, when he inaugurated the vaccination at the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) Teaching Hospital, Parklane, Enugu.
He noted that he was vaccinated on March 15 at the Enugu State Government House and advised everyone to get vaccinated.
According to him, in the past 12 to 15 months, the world has been challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic, in the way we live, work and play, leaving a trail of mobility and mortality.
“Government at all levels have laid emphasis on pharmaceutical dimension measures, to curtail the pandemic.
“Enugu State provided this leadership, through both enlightenment and advocacy, on COVID-19 protocols as prescribed by the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC).
“These continued in the state while the race for vaccine discovery lasted.
‘Several numeric health facilities, infrastructures were established to respond to the ravaging pandemic.
” Today I am delighted to share the good news, Enugu State took delivery of 65, 410 doses of Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine from the National Primary Health Care Agency.
”The Agency has commenced the vaccination, starting from the front-line workers in line with its protocol.
” I, therefore, invite the people of the state to take the advantage of this vaccination to protect themselves from this deadly pandemic,” Ugwuanyi said.
In his welcome address, the Executive Secretary of Enugu State Primary Health Care Agency, Dr George Ugwu, said that the pandemic had been a thorn on the world flesh.
He described Gov Ugwuanyi as a ‘man of vision and foresight’ adding that he had long prepared for storage of the vaccines long before it was manufactured and supplied to Nigeria.
”Sometime in 2020, Gov. Ugwuanyi provided 100 solar refrigerators to be distributed to selected primary health care centres and we did not know his foresight.
”Soon after, he, Ugwuanyi provided 206 solar drive refrigerators in conjunction with our partner to keep our vaccines and cool and room safe.
”All these we did not know, there is something waiting and here it is, the “COVID-19 vaccine.”
”Now, we know that Gov. Ugwuanyi is a man of vision and foresight as the state took delivery of 65, 410 doses of COVID-19 vaccine, ” he said.
Ugwu said that that the Agency had trained enough personnel to ensure that the vaccines were administered to residents in all the crannies of the state.
Dr Emmanuel Obi, the Commissioner for Health in the state said that the journey of fight against COVID-19 started since March 2020.
He said that the Enugu State Governor provided an enabling environment for the health sector to fight the pandemic.
”As a good leader, Ugwuanyi has gone ahead to receive the vaccine before everybody on March 15, 2021.
”Beside this vaccine, let us still keep to the Health expert protocols of wearing our face mask, hand washing, maintaining distance and others, ” Obi said.
In a vote of thanks, the chairman Enugu Traditional Ruler, Igwe Lawrence Agubuzo thanked the governor and health workers for their efforts in curtailing the pandemic.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that strategic leaders and front-line health workers were vaccinated after the inauguration. (NAN)
