By CHARLES IWUOHA

Ebonyi State Governor, Engr David Umahi, and his wife, Rachel Umahi, on Thursday received the COVID-19 vaccine at the new Government House, Abakaliki.

Others who also received the vaccines include the Deputy Governor, Barr Kelechi Igwe, and his wife, Nnenna Igwe, and other members of the State Executive Council.

The State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Daniel Umezurike, administered the vaccines on the top Government officials.

Governor Umahi warned against commercialization of the vaccines adding that such act would create room for fake vaccines to flood the state.

He directed his deputy to monitor strictly the process of the vaccination and to ensure that those stipulated to receive the vaccine were all captured in the 13 local government areas of the state.

Umahi maintained that the vaccines should not be made compulsory but encourage the health workers, people above 60 years of age and others to ensure they receive the vaccine to protect them from the dangers of the pandemic.

He said: "We must ensure strict monitoring of the vaccination because if we did not monitor it closely, there are two things that will start happening, you will see the vaccine going outside the coffees of the ministry and then the people will be asked to pay money”.

"They will ask the people to pay money to be vaccinated. Then the fake covid 19 vaccination will also come in and that will kill our people. I don’t want anything that will kill our people. So I want this vaccination to be properly monitored.

"I want everyone that will be vaccinated to fill a form and that form must be signed by the Deputy Governor and the Commissioner for Health before the vaccination will take place. The Deputy Governor must send to me daily how many persons have been vaccinated and at the end of every week the cumulative figure of the number of persons vaccinated.”

Giving a breakdown of those to be vaccinated, Governor Umahi said that member state house of Assembly will be allocated 1,000 doses, Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki 4000, the State Exco, their spouses and their children above 18 years, members of the Judiciary 1,000 and security agencies 4,000.

Others include Elderly people above 60 years 13,000, Local Government Chairmen and their families 2,500, State Civil Servants 3,500, Local Government Civil Servants 3,500, Government House Workers 1000 and others 2,390.

He urged the taskforce to ensure that the vaccination must be completed within a period of 10 days to maintain its efficacy and urged the people to embrace the vaccination.

The commissioner of Health Dr. Umezuruike said that the state is following the national guildline in the vaccination exercise and commended the State Governor and other strategic leaders for volunteering to be vaccinated.

He said that all the plans to ensure the success of the vaccination has been put in place adding that the health workers has been trained to give the vaccines.

He noted that the state has 5 centers in each local government area for the vaccination and assured the state governor of the smooth vaccination exercise.

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