There are indications that Nigerians, who have taken the first shot of the Coronavirus vaccine, are ignoring the second dose and booster shots.
Also, government Ministries, Departments and Agencies have relaxed the vaccination mandate earlier imposed by the Federal Government.
These came to the fore on Monday as our correspondent observed via the official Facebook page of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency that while a total of 15,792,329 individuals had received the first shot of the vaccine, only 6,172,468 had received the second dose, while only 563,692 individuals had received booster shots.
Analysis of the data revealed that the country was experiencing a 60.9 per cent drop in the uptake of the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The PUNCH reports that the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 headed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, had on October 13, 2021 announced that Federal Government workers who failed to show proof of vaccination would be barred from public offices.
Mustapha had gone ahead to announce December 1, 2021 as the deadline. The decision led to public outcry with individuals accusing the government of infringing on the human rights of workers.
In defence, the Executive Director of the NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib, insisted that civil servants, who felt that they did not need the vaccine, should respect the human rights of the citizens who were vaccinated by staying away from them, stating, “My own human rights start where yours end.”
The PUNCH also observed that while the Federal Government enforced the mandate for a few days, the majority of the MDAs had relaxed the mandate.
Our correspondent, who visited the ministries of Health, Education, Sports and Youth Development, Labour, Science and Technology, Information and Niger Delta Affairs, as well as the offices of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission and the Universal Basic Education Commission, among others, observed that workers and visitors alike now had access to government facilities without vaccination cards.
While some agencies such as UBEC still insisted on the usage of face masks, The PUNCH observed that there was little or no enforcement in other locations.
An Associate Professor of Virology at the Osun State University, Waheed Sule, stated in an interview with our correspondent that the government had overtime failed to act consistently.
He said the government had also relaxed while forgetting that Nigerians were not readily obedient.A Professor of Medical Virology at the University of Maiduguri, Marycelin Baba, wondered why the government would put up policies it had no intention of enforcing.
Baba also lamented the fire brigade approach method of fighting outbreaks being deployed by Nigerians.
When contacted, the technical director to the PSC, Dr Muktar Muhammed, said, “The vaccine mandate is not over, it is left to the MDAs to enforce.”
Meanwhile, Shuaib said on Monday that his agency had been engaging with stakeholders to ramp up vaccination in the country.
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