From Esther Akaa, Lafia
Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State and his deputy, Dr Emmanuel Akabe have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
Governor Sule and his deputy, Dr Akabe were administered the Oxford Astrazeneca COVID-I9 vaccine Wednesday Wednesday in Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital.
The governor who spoke immediately after receiving the vaccination, said the COVID-I9 vaccines were safe, calling on frontline workers and the general public to avail themselves for the vaccination.
“I call on the people of Nasarawa State to use the opportunity especially those that are in the frontline workers, commissioners, traditional rulers who come in contact with people everyday and majority of our staff to come out and be vaccinated.
“We have taken their vaccines for over 10 to 15 minutes but nothing has happened to us. So, I encourage you to take it and remain protected. However, taking it does not necessarily mean that we will stop wearing our facemasks,” he said.
He, therefore, thanked the President, Muhammadu Buhari, Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19, and the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency for efforts put in place to ensure that Nasarawa state get its own share of the COVID-I9 vaccines.
Also speaking, Chairman of the state Task Force Committee on COVID-I9 who doubles as the deputy governor of the state, Dr Emmanuel Akabe said the state took delivery of 61,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines from the federal government.
The deputy governor explained that the current batch of the vaccine would be valid until July, 2021.
“We will make sure that all the local government areas are ready to accept the vaccines for storage and for usage.
“More vaccines will come into Nasarawa and the vaccines are quite safe to use and safe to take. We hope there will be more doses before the 12 weeks are over so that we will give us some forms of immunity against the virus,” he said.
