By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Lagos State government has disclosed that only about 60 per cent of residents of the state would be vaccinated against the dreadful COVID-19.
Governor of the state, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said this on Sunday during an interview with Channels Television.
“We don’t have to vaccinate the whole of 22 million people in Lagos. The plan is around ensuring that there is herd immunity and that typically speaks to 50 to 60 per cent of our population. That’s the target we need to really meet in vaccine rollout,” Mr Sanwo-Olu declared on the Sunday Politics show anchored by Mr Kayode Okikiolu.
Lagos is the epicentre of the virus in Nigeria, recording close to 45,000 cases of the over 120,000 cases already confirmed in Nigeria.
During the live interview programme, the Governor said his administration was already having discussions with the notable vaccine makers like Pfizer and others.
However, he emphasised that one of the major challenges in procuring the jabs would be funding, noting that the private sector would be approached to provide support.
“We have started the conversation with some of the vaccine manufacturers. I have made contact with Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca. Developers of Moderna have written to us and we have written back to them.
“We are making our own sub-national contacts and part of the things to come out of this effort is that, once we see what the national government is doing in terms of protocols, then we can plan for our rollout. The contacts we made with vaccine developers are at the board level,” he said.
However, he noted that for now, “We want the federal government to take the lead in getting the vaccine. As a sub-national government, we are taking our destiny into our own hand.
“We are making our own sub-national contacts and part of the things to come out of this effort is that, once we see what the national government is doing in terms of protocols, then we can plan for our rollout. The contacts we made with vaccine developers are at the board level.”
He expressed confidence that the herd immunity against the pandemic through the vaccination of 60 per cent of residents of the metropolis would help to check rate of transmission and build the resilience of the state against the ravaging virus.
