FG launches strategy against low COVID-19 risk perception, vaccination bottlenecks

The Federal Government Monday launched a strategy to enable Nigeria to overcome low COVID-19 risk perception and address state-specific bottlenecks in vaccine uptake.

The new strategy called S.C.A.L.E.S 3.0 Strategy for COVID-19 vaccination in Nigeria follows the launch of SCALES 2.0 strategy to ramp up integrated COVID-19 vaccination and Primary Health Care services across the country, launched in February this year.  It is deployed through the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA).

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The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, said Nigeria had continued to experience changes in the factors influencing demand and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines. 

He said these changing situations varied from state to state. 

He said the situation required continuous review of strategies for promoting demand and ensuring vaccine access and accountability. 

The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire said despite the fact the SCALES 2.0 strategy significantly scaled up the country’s vaccination efforts, the total performance left much to be desired.

He said as of August 3, only 24.4 per cent of the total eligible population had been fully vaccinated. 

He said only Nasarawa, Jigawa and Kano States had vaccination coverage of over 50 per cent, leaving 34 states performing sub-optimally in terms of COVID-19 vaccination coverage. 

Executive Director, NPHCDA, Faisal Shuaib, said, as of August 8, a total of 27,703,573 Nigerians had been fully vaccinated  against COVID-19.

He said SCALES 3.0 is an evidence-based update that fixes the bugs in SCALES 2.0 and uses a human-centred demand generation design to address low COVID-19 risk perception in the country.