The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has again appealed to Nigerians to get COVID-19 vaccines.

NPHCDA executive director, Faisal Shuaib, made the call during the handover ceremony of over 604,800 doses of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) COVID-19 vaccines from telecom giant MTN.

Mr Shuaib, represented by the director of Disease Control and Immunisation in the NPHCDA, Bassey Okposen, said MTN had been a partner in the country’s development.

According to the NPHCDA boss, many Nigerians are hesitant to be vaccinated.

“We seem to be having the wrong information or impression that COVID-19 is no longer existing or it is no longer a problem,” he said. “The fact is that COVID-19 is still here with us in Nigeria and elsewhere in the world, and it is a dangerous disease that can surge anytime as it has mutating properties.”

Mr Shuaib appealed to all eligible Nigerians who are yet to be vaccinated to avail themselves of current opportunities to receive their COVID-19 vaccines.

“Over 47 million eligible persons in Nigeria have so far received the vaccines. Although these people constitute less than half of the overall population of eligible persons in the country, they cannot be wrong to have taken the vaccine,” he explained.

He added that the agency has since rolled out its SCALES 3.0 strategy for the COVID-19 campaign, which provides a unique opportunity for a whole family to seek protection against vaccine-preventable diseases concurrently in one package.

“This means that we are vaccinating eligible persons against COVID-19 and other diseases such as hepatitis, yellow fever, polio, measles, etc. concurrently,” he stated.

(NAN)