The Kaduna State government announced on Friday that it had vaccinated more than five million people against COVID-19, representing a fully vaccinated target coverage of 4.9 million people.
Mr Ibrahim Adamu, Deputy State Immunisation Officer, State Primary Healthcare Board, announced this in Kaduna on the sidelines of a novelty football match to educate young people about sexual and reproductive health.
According to Adamu, approximately 3.2 million of the vaccinated individuals are female.
He stated that Kaduna State was ranked fourth in the nation for states with a fully vaccinated population.
He said efforts were ongoing to mobilize those who had not collected their second doses of the vaccine to do so to get fully vaccinated.
“We are collaborating with the state’s social mobilization working group to ensure that every citizen who is supposed to be vaccinated is fully vaccinated.”
“We had a shortage of vaccines in some local government areas as of last week, but right now we have received nearly 5,000 doses of Johnson and Johnson’s vaccines that are being distributed to all areas,” he said.
The novelty match was organized by the United Nations Population Fund and the Kaduna State Primary Healthcare Board in collaboration with the Kaduna State AIDS Control Agency and an NGO called the Youth Ambassadors, according to NAN.
According to Dr Audu Alayande, Assistant Representative, Reproductive Health, UNFPA Kaduna, the event was organized to educate youths about sexual and reproductive health, HIV, family planning and COVID-19.
“It is also to equip the youth with critical information and knowledge on how to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, unwanted pregnancies, and unplanned marriages,’’ he said.