FG strengthens community pharmacies to achieve COVID-19 vaccination target

The Federal Government has unveiled COVID-19 vaccination at community pharmacies to boost Nigeria’s efforts at attaining the national target of 70 per cent coverage in deference to attainment of herd immunity.

It hopes that with 6000 community pharmacies spread across the federation, coupled with access and long operating hours, the measure would contribute to increased vaccination.

However, some 30,327,550 persons were vaccinated with the first dose of COVID-19 as at May 31, 2022, representing 23.9 per cent of the eligible population, while 14,629,451 people had received their second dose and 18,291,072 others fully vaccinated (16.4 per cent of the eligible population), just as 1,229,909 persons got their booster jabs.

Speaking at the event, yesterday, in Abuja, Executive Director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib, noted that community pharmacies “are one of the most easily accessible and frequently consulted points of care for health care service delivery by the public sector, especially in underserved population due to their interconnectedness with the communities.”

He said the flag-off was a novel initiative geared at strengthening the nation’s health security architecture, adding that the collaboration “is a step in the right direction, as it is in furtherance of the agency’s determination to expand access to COVID-19 vaccination and other immunisation services across the country.”

The NPHCDA boss observed that many nations globally had authorised vaccination in community pharmacies, stressing that the practice had shown promise in countries like South Africa, United States of America and United Kingdom, where pharmacies “are playing a crucial role in the administration of COVID-19 vaccines.”