Efforts to vaccinate 70% of Nigerians against COVID-19 intensify

• NSSF, NPHCDA lead campaign, say vaccine hesitancy, jab confidence, non-compliance can delay achievement of health targets

Twenty-five months after the first confirmed COVID-19 case in Nigeria and 12 months after the first shot of the vaccine was administered in the country, only about four per cent of the country’s 200 million population, that is over eight million persons, have been fully vaccinated against the virus.

Unfortunately, Nigeria and most developing countries could not achieve the World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) set target for all countries to vaccinate 10 per cent of their populations by the end of September 2021 due to inequity in the distribution of vaccines.

Also, several studies have identified vaccine hesitancy, jab confidence and non-compliance by some Nigerians as some of the reasons for the low uptake of COVID-19 vaccines in the country.

The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) in partnership with the Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund (NSSF) and as part of the universal call for coordinated activity at the global, regional, national, and local levels, are championing campaigns in vaccine confidence and the vaccination of 70 per cent of the population.

They said as the aftermath of the pandemic continues to keep the world on its feet, clinical trials and surveillance have shown the crucial need for COVID-19 vaccination in preventing deaths even as health professionals have raised concerns on the role of vaccine confidence. Vaccine confidence, according to the Centre for Disease and Control (CDC), is the belief that vaccines work, are safe and are part of a trustworthy medical system.

To address concerns over vaccine safety, vaccine hesitancy, vaccine confidence and non-compliance by some Nigerians, the NPHCDA and NSSF, last week, held a virtual roundtable discussion tagged “Vaccine Confidence in Nigeria.”

Vice-Chairman, NSSF, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, in his welcome remarks, said: “This roundtable discussion puts us in right place, at the right time to accelerate the exchange of ideas and scaling-up of good practices to reduce COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.”

At the virtual roundtable discussion, which had over 400 registrants and more than 150 attendees, the Executive Director (ED)/Chief Executive Officer (CEO), NPHCDA, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, brought everyone up to speed on the successful campaign of the six-state vaccination drive and the partnership between NSSF and NPHCDA that impacted over 1.6 million Nigerians, with an important lesson on how vaccine hesitancy and non-compliance can delay the achievement of health targets. “The issue of vaccine hesitancy is something that is global but within the context of Nigeria, there are different issues driving this hesitancy. Tapping into global practices is going to be very critical for us as a country,” he said.

The event was also joined by a group of panellists, which included policy experts, foundations, civil society organisations, community leaders and faith-based organisations. Among them were Prof Larso, Michael Fornwall of Merck For Mothers; Tijani Mohammed, Advocacy and Communications – Nigeria; Alhaji Samaila Muhammad Mera, Emir of Argungu Camp, Chairman, Northern Traditional Leaders Committee NTLC); Bishop Sunday Onuoha (Nigerian Interfaith Action Association NIFAA) and Peter Hawkins, Country Representative of United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF). One common theme among the panellists was the need for mind-collaboration while exploring the factors responsible for vaccine hesitancy and proffering context-specific solutions for vaccine education campaigns across the country.

Director of Disease Control and Immunisation at NPHCDA, Dr. Bassey Okposen, spoke on the significance of going to the grassroots and providing information around why vaccines work. He said: “It would help the goal of being able to exit the pandemic as they look forward to delivering COVID-19 vaccines to at least 70 per cent of the eligible population this year. Whether there’s a pandemic or not, we will always continue to try to improve childhood immunisation by vaccinating children against vaccine-preventable diseases.”

General Manager, NSSF, Dr. Fejiro Chinye-Nwoko, said: “There is a need to integrate COVID-19 vaccinations into routine vaccinations for added benefits for Nigeria.

“On vaccine inequity, even in Nigeria, when the vaccines come in, how are they distributed? That is where NSSF is supporting. We know that some states are less buoyant than others. So, those less buoyant states will not have the capacity and the resources to quickly deploy these vaccines and run vaccination campaigns at the ward level and local council level to make sure people get the vaccines. It may just be the state capital that has these vaccines. So, we are coming in there to ensure that there is equity internally.”

Representative of COVID-19 New Vaccine Information, Communication, and Education (CONVINCE), Prof. Heidi Larson, who spoke on best practices in building vaccine confidence, said: “The most important lesson in building vaccine confidence is to listen and understand, map the issues, and design the interventions to fit the needs of the people first; citing examples of how countries doused negative emotions about the vaccines and were able to build trust and uptake by leveraging emotions of hope and empathy.”

Leader of Nigerian Interfaith Action Association (NIFAA), Bishop Sunday Onuoha, who spoke on building vaccine confidence within communities, said: “The government needs to mobilise religious leaders, as they are the key to encouraging communities to participate in the vaccination programmes, as this seems to have worked in the past polio vaccine programme.”

One of the panellists, Micheal Fornwall, from Merck for Mothers, said: “Building confidence in vaccination and creating resilient immunisation programmes requires a coordinated approach. It would require government, stakeholders and leadership commitment. Effective health systems, policies and programme coordination, supportive, positive community and individual experiences to drive confidence and demand in the country.”

The NSSF is a private-sector led institution born out of a partnership between the Global Citizen (GC) and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) to complement efforts in combating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic through fundraising to address three core COVID-19 response areas: supporting the most vulnerable, strengthening health care systems and re-skilling of Nigerian youth for The New Nigeria.

The Institution believes that everyone should have access to quality and affordable healthcare services when they need it, young Nigerians should be enabled with opportunities for self-empowerment and well-skilled for a post-COVID era and that the most vulnerable, disadvantaged and marginalised groups in Nigeria should not be left behind.

Meanwhile, according to the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Africa CDC, the continent is on course to reach the vaccination target of at least 70 per cent of its population by the end of 2022.

Current figures suggest that 11 per cent of the continent’s 1.3 billion people are fully vaccinated.

The public health official said he was encouraged by a surge in vaccinations in countries like Nigeria, where vaccine hesitancy appears to be waning.

Director-General of African CDC, Dr. John Nkengasong, added that the continent’s vaccination target is achievable if current trends are maintained and vaccination is ramped up across countries. The Africa CDC says that 580 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been received in Africa so far and 64 per cent of these have been administered.

The director added that studies conducted in several countries suggest that about 80 per cent of the population of the countries is ready to be vaccinated.

According to COVID-19 vaccination in the WHO African Region – Monthly Bulletin, February 2022, the African region is lagging behind in COVID-19 vaccination roll out with only 10.2 per cent of its population fully vaccinated compared to 55.5 per cent globally. Between January and August 2021, the low vaccination coverage was due to the insufficient availability of vaccines. Since August 2021, vaccine supply in the African region has increased significantly, especially through the COVAX Facility, which has donated 69 per cent of all vaccines received in the African region. With only 51.1 per cent of vaccines received administered and reports of expired COVID-19 vaccines in 27 countries, the low vaccination rate appears to be the consequence of insufficient vaccine demand and limited capacity to roll out the vaccination programme. As result, only five countries have achieved the target of vaccinating 40 per cent of their population set for December 2021, and 15 countries are yet to reach 10 per cent of their population fully vaccinated. It is critical for the WHO Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO) and other partners to provide the requisite technical and financial support to Member States to speed and scale up COVID-19 vaccination and achieve the target of fully vaccinating 70 per cent of the population in all countries by the end of June 2022. To this end, the WHO AFRO launched, in January 2022, a new initiative aimed at ramping up COVID-19 vaccination in Africa: the Multi-Partners Country Support Teams initiative.