Plans in place to ensure Nigerians get Covid-19 vaccine soon as it’s out –Ehanire

The Minister for Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire has disclosed that the Federal Government has put plans in place to ensure that Nigerians get the Covid-19 vaccine immediately it comes out.

Ehanire who revealed this on Wednesday at a two-day multi-sectoral conference on the COVID-19 with the theme: “Building back better, with resilience”, said that the Ministry of Health signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to that effect last week.

The minister, who was represented at the conference by the Minister of State, Dr. Olorunnimbe Mamora said that there was a need to prioritise health, if any gains were to be made in the sector.

He said; “The Federal Ministry of Health, just last week, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding to ensure that when the vaccines, wherever they come from – that have been established to be effective for COVID-19 – we will not be left behind.

“We must prioritise and the first thing we need to prioritise is the issue of health. I have always held the view that we need a nationally-shared vision and in that vision, we take it as health comes first. And if we appreciate that, the allocation in terms of budget for health will be much more than what it is at the moment.

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“The next thing is giving priority to primary healthcare. What we were told in medical school is that ‘common things occur commonly’. And that is why malaria remains one of the biggest killers, because it is something that is common and it is with us.

“The figures that we have in infant mortality and in maternal mortality, a lot of the issues related can be handled at the primary care level, if we have functional primary health centres, where all the basic services can be rendered and where all basic services in terms of infrastructure are available – water and electricity supply.

“That is why the ministry has designed a prototype structure of primary health centres. We are working towards having functional primary health centres where all the basic services will be available, from immunisation to antenatal care, to WASH programme and health education,” the statement by the minister concluded.

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