Over 1.5 million people in Zamfara have received COVID-19 vaccines, according to Dr Tukur Sama’ila, the Executive Secretary of the State Primary Health Care Board (PHCB).
Dr. Sama’ila made the announcement on Tuesday in Gusau at the board’s quarterly media engagement and sensitization meeting.
The meeting was attended by representatives from the media, health partners, and executives from the state’s health ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs), according to Nigeria’s News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
According to him, the purpose of the meeting is to inform the media about the board’s programmes and activities aimed at improving health-care delivery.
“We invite you, especially the media, to this meeting to seek your support in advocating for various challenges and promoting our activities,” he said.
Despite the lingering security challenges, he claims that the state was able to achieve tremendous success.
He explained that Anka has the best performance record out of the state’s 14 Local Government Areas, with a 57 percent success rate.
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“We expect other LGAs to achieve up to 70% achievement records by September of this year,” he said.
Pregnant women in the state have a low rate of delivery at health facilities, according to the Executive Secretary.
He stated that “one of the major challenges we are facing in Zamfara is women having their babies in their homes.”
“This is fantastic; our antenatal care (ANC) data is constantly rising in our facilities, but only 70 to 80 percent of our pregnant women attend ANC in hospitals, and delivery rates are extremely low.”
“Immunization is another area of difficulty; we have the vaccine, and we have eligible children, but the vaccine is not reaching them.”
“We have issues with noncompliance, children not being available, and religious and cultural challenges from communities,” he explained.
Behavioral change, he believes, is also a major source of concern that requires serious consideration.
“We’re also pleading with the media to promote COVID-19 vaccination and child birth spacing to the general public in the state to dispel myths about these issues,” he added.
Aliyu Maikiyo, the Permanent Secretary of the State Ministry of Health, reiterated the state government’s commitment to continuing to support health care delivery in a statement.
“We are all aware that the current administration, led by Governor Bello Matawalle, has built 147 standard Primary Health Care Centers in each of the 147 political wards in the state’s 14 LGAs.
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“Among the administration’s major efforts are the recent recruitment of health personnel for state general hospitals, the establishment of a state contributory health care agency, and the upgrade of the state-owned drugs management agency, among others.”
“The current administration has been working hard to ensure that counterpart funding for various partnership programmes to improve health care delivery in the state is paid,” Maikiyo explained.
The Permanent Secretary praised the state’s partners, particularly UNICEF and the WHO, for their generous assistance in health care delivery.
Mustafa Alinkilo, the Programme Manager, State Emergency, Routine Immunization Coordination Center, also spoke, urging the media to intensify the state’s immunisation, health facility delivery, and ANC activities awareness campaigns.
Alinkilo also stressed the importance of raising public awareness about integrated Primary Health Care.
