Ekiti State government sensitises residents to COVID-19 vaccination

Citizens want vaccines administered on volunteers first

The Ekiti State Government has urged residents of the state not to be apprehensive in taking COVID-19 vaccination when the vaccines eventually arrive in the state.

The state’s Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr. Oyebanji Filani, stated this, yesterday, at a community sensitisation programme organised by the state’s Ministry of Health and Human Services and State Primary Healthcare Development Agency in Oye-Ekiti.

Filani said that the community engagement programme was to let the citizens at the grassroots know the efforts of the Dr. Kayode Fayemi-led administration in the health sector as well as getting feedback from the local communities.

He said that the government had commenced renovation of Primary Health Centres and General Hospitals across the state while monthly running grants are given to enable the health facilities attend to some critical needs.

The commissioner, therefore, urged the people to embrace the State Health Insurance Scheme to cushion the effect of high cost of having access to quality health.

Meanwhile, participants at the programme suggested that the government should look for volunteers to first take the COVID-19 vaccines when they are finally delivered.

They also urged the government to set up Local Government Task Force that would enforce people’s compliance with COVID-19 safety protocols and as well monitor the activities of Traditional Birth Attendants in the state.

The participants, who advised that all primary and secondary healthcare facilities in their community be renovated and furnished with bedding and other essential medical equipment, appealed to the state government to enrol the frontline health workers in the state in a life insurance scheme because of their vulnerability to risk of COVID-19 pandemic.