About 60 per cent of the staff of the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, (UATH) have been administered the COVID-19 vaccines, the Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Prof. Bissalla Ekele, has said.
The CMD, while speaking at an event to mark the one year anniversary of the UATH COVID-19 isolation and treatment Centre on Tuesday, said the hospital received 1000 doses of the vaccine and health workers, including him have received the vaccine without any effects.
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He added that once in a while people may complain of pain in the arm for any vaccine but it is not unusual.
“Stories making rounds in the social media that people who received the vaccine are collapsing and dying is not real.
“The number of our health workers taking the vaccine increases daily because of its benefits and I will advise members of the public when it’s time for the vaccination to be rolled out.
“They should take advantage of it so that we can all be protected, live to cater to our children and develop the country.
“Our leaders demonstrated high political will by taking their jab, we should follow their steps.”
Prof. Ekele said he was impressed with the performance of the health workers, adding that the outcome of patients they have managed have given them consolation that the sacrifice is worth it and none of their staff was lost to the virus.
The UATH COVID-19 team leader, Dr Thahir Yunusa, said they were motivated due to the support they received from the CMD who made sure every tool needed to work were available.
“Secondly, we wanted to do something great for our country because we didn’t want a situation where COVID-19 patients would be taken out of the country for treatment and medical tourism will continue and thirdly, it was an opportunity to prove to ourselves that we also have quality hands in Nigeria.
One of the team member, Dr Vivian Kwaghe, said it had been very challenging managing a pandemic of this magnitude, saying that they were discriminated against by family members, friends and even colleagues.
UATH admitted and managed 605 patients, recorded 91 mortality, and managed over 400 outpatients since the first case was recorded in February 2020.
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