Faisal Shuaib, executive director, and chief executive officer, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), has said President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, and other prominent Nigerians will be among the first set to receive the COVID-19 vaccine on live television to help drive awareness.
Around 100,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine are expected in the country at the end of January.
Speaking at the media briefing of the presidential task force (PTF) on COVID-19, held in Abuja on Thursday, Shuaib said administering the vaccine on live TV is part of efforts to promote awareness.
He added that frontline health workers would also be given priority on receiving the vaccine when the doses arrive in Nigeria.
“We will like to see a situation where Mr. president, the vice-president, the SGF, critical leaders come and take the vaccine in the full glare of the public to demonstrate that these vaccines are safe. So we have to make provisions for those,” he said.
“Even in developed countries, what we have seen is that apart from the prioritization of health workers, you have to also identify critical leaders that you don’t want them to be wiped off by the virus. For example, in warfare, if you want to destroy your enemies, you look for specific leaders, captains, the generals; once you decapitate them, then the soldiers will become weak.
“So, as much as possible, you do not want to also leave your leaders vulnerable to COVID-19, it doesn’t mean you want to prioritize politicians; that is not correct. I emphasized during the last briefing that we will prioritize our health workers because they are the ones in direct contact with cases in isolation units.”
At the PTF briefing on Tuesday, Shuaib had said the country hopes to get 42 million doses through the COVAX initiative, to ensure that 40 percent of the country’s population receives the vaccine in 2021, while another 30 percent will be vaccinated in 2022.
