Addressing low COVID-19 vaccination rate in South-East

The review meeting on COVID-19 mass vaccination of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) with South-East leaders and health authorities on Wednesday, Feb. 2, must have come and gone.

However, the far-reaching revelation in the review meeting, commitment of political leaders and health authorities remain the future of the zone in ongoing COVID-19 mass administration.

Within some presentations in the meeting, it was obvious that the zone was performing poorly in the day-to-day aggregate target of each of its five states meant to contribute to the national target and get COVID-19 kicked out of the country for good.

For one of the states in the zone (Enugu State), vaccinating about a thousand persons out of a target of 18,000 daily in the current mass vaccination shows that all is not well and the zone is seriously underperforming.

In Imo State, with a national target of about 24,000 to be vaccinated daily, some days during the yuletide recorded zero vaccination administration, as revealed by NPHCDA national portal. This is so discouraging and appalling.

As was explained by the NPHCDA, achieving the national COVID-19 vaccination target rests on what the people down the chain at the family, ward, community, council area and state levels are doing. So in a nutshell, the national target for COVID-19 mass vaccination inversely is a product of the daily family, ward, community, council area and state target on the exercise.

Setting the tone for the x-ray, Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State has urged South-East governors and health authorities to make more efforts to up-scale the current rate of daily vaccination against the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic within the zone. The governor admitted that the recent statistics of daily and total aggregate COVID-19 vaccinated figures from the zone remained low compared with other zones of the country.

"We are assuring the NPHCDA after this review meeting that we are going to work harder as a zone to up-scale our efforts. We will adopt the appeal of Sen. Chukwuka Utazi, on the need for our people to renew their vigour for COVID-19 mass vaccination intake in the South-East," Ugwuanyi, who was represented by his deputy, Mrs Cecilia Ezeilo, in the meeting, said.

According to the governor, "I will want various executive secretaries of South-East states' Primary Health Care Development Agency to further get close to rural areas, interact with town unions, traditional rulers and other leaders to see how best to up-scale COVID-19 vaccination".

Taking a position, Utazi, who is the Senate Committee Chairman for Primary Health Care, said that the political, community and religious leaders of the zone must engage and consult to resolve issues of hesitancy, low awareness and outright rejection of the ongoing COVID-19 mass vaccination in the zone. The senator urged residents of the South-East to have a re-think on their acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination, since the zone has no previous attitude of rejection of any nationwide vaccine or medical exercise.

"Our people should jettison all forms of unfounded rumours about the COVID-19 vaccination. It is safe and secure, while virtually all political and other leaders, including myself, the President, his vice, the governor and his deputy, here with us, have publicly received their complete jabs and even booster jabs.

"We must have a re-think and speed up the COVID-19 vaccination rate; our people are highly educated and knowledgeable on global issues, especially the positive benefits of the COVID-19 mass vaccination. We are business people in the zone and we need to be healthy to do our businesses well, which brings us to the need to ensure that COVID-19 pandemic is dealt with in the zone. The states in the South-East should wake up and we should take our rightful place in this national exercise and be among the most ranked states in COVID-19 mass administration," Utazi, who is also the senator representing Enugu North Senatorial Zone, said.

Speaking, the Chairman of Forum of Health Commissioners in South-East, Dr Vincent Okpara, said that the meeting was timely as the Primary Health Care remained the gateway in the health system meant to ensure success in national health targets and programmes.

Okpara said: "I sincerely believe we have to harmonise and come out with workable strategies to overcome the peculiar and emerging challenges being faced that have led to the low COVID-19 mass vaccination level in the South-East".

However, apart from hesitancy, low awareness and outright rejection, a COVID-19 vaccinator, Mr John Okorie, said another emerging issue confronting COVID-19 vaccination is the sit-at-home activity, which is more severe in hinterlands in the zone. He also said that some traditional healers and religious leaders have already convinced some locals that COVID-19 is the usual common cold.

Okorie noted that some residents also reject the COVID-19 vaccination based on the government not being fair to them. He said that some of the locals are of the view: "How can we be here in the same country, they brought the COVID-19 palliative; it ended among people living in the cities connected to those in government. Again, the COVID-19 relief fund is being shared and we are not remembered. You want us to take vaccination as the only benefit from the massive largesse from the COVID-19 international package running into 'multi-billion naira'. It is clear that our problem is purely hunger, which stems from the lockdown and other economic disruptions of COVID-19".

Selling the dummy that have helped other zones forge head, the Executive Director of NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib, urged the South-East government and health authorities to do more in terms of awareness and enlightenment to debunk all known or emerging unfounded information against COVID-19 vaccination. Shuaib noted that the zone should do more and better, given its high-literacy level.

"In this review meeting, we must put heads together, find out as well as resolve why the COVID-19 mass vaccination is not moving within the expected rate and speed in the zone. Nationally, we must use the same zeal and ingenuity that led to the eradication of polio to ensure that every single person in the country gets vaccinated and all citizens get protected.

"For South-East, we must adopt practices that will work in the zone and ensure that rejection and hesitancy are totally eliminated for the exercise to be embraced by all. I believe that the meeting would enable us all in the zone to take determined steps to chart the way forward," he said.

Shuaib suggested that South-East states should set up a high-powered committee at the governor's level that would comprise the governor or his deputy, commissioners for health, executive secretary of state PHCDA and critical stakeholders. The executive director said: "They should hold weekly or more regular meetings on the daily COVID-19 vaccination, mandate council chairmen to meet up their daily targets and reward hard working council chairmen with recognitions and awards to spur them to do more. The state should support COVID-19 mass vaccinators with daily monetary incentive to motivate them to do more; be more resilient in convincing residents and upping their daily vaccination jabs given to residents".

All well said, it is left for the governors of the zone and their health partners to ensure that modalities reached to counter this negative narrative on COVID-19 mass vaccination are given the political-will and monetary back-up to succeed.