By CHARLES IWUOHA

The Enugu State Government on Wednesday inaugurated a five-man high-powered Committee Task-force on COVID-19 Mass Vaccination within the state.

The members of the taskforce were drawn from Enugu State Primary Health Care Development Agency (ENS-PHCDA), National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the state immunisation office.

Inaugurating the taskforce in Enugu, Dr George Ugwu, Executive Secretary of ENS-PHCDA, charged the taskforce members to ensure mass mobilization of entire residents for the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the state.

Ugwu said that the state was moving into ensuring that residents from 18 years and above get COVID-19 vaccination within a 50 days target.

According to him, members of the taskforce are carefully chosen to ensure that with their influence they drive the renewed target of the state government on reaching all residents above 18 years.

Ugwu said that the terms of reference for the taskforce included: “To give oversight function to the Mass COVID-19 Vaccination in the state.

“To ensure COVID-19 vaccines administered are NAFDAC approved and certified.

“To ensure that only residents administered with COVID-19 vaccination possess COVID-19 vaccination cards.

“To ensure that unscrupulous elements do not collect or sell COVID-19 vaccination cards”.

The executive secretary said that the ENS-PHCDA would be involving reputable private and mission hospitals to join in the COVID-19 vaccination to create more neighbourhood vaccination points in the state.

“We are involving other corporate groups in the health sectors to further escalate the COVID-19 vaccination and get the vaccination point closer in various neighbourhoods within the state.

“We have done a train-of-the-trainer for our vaccination team in Abuja and recently another train-of-the-trainer at the state level for the COVID-19 mass vaccination.

“The agency will in a few days conduct a local train-of-the-trainer for vaccination teams at the private and mission facilities levels that would help increase the COVID-19 vaccination points,” he said.

Ugwu said that the criteria for selection of private and mission health facilities included having been participating in routine vaccination before now, submitting regular vaccination data to ENS-PHCDA and having a high daily number of patients.

Responding, the Secretary of the taskforce, Dr Chinyere Chime, assured that the team would work closely with other stakeholders to achieve the target of the COVID-19 mass vaccination in the state.

Chime, who is also the State Immunisation Officer, said: “We are assuring the government and people of the state that we will carry out this task with dedication and ensure that set targets are achieved according to the terms of reference”.