Emmanuel Ekpo, Uyo
The Akwa Ibom State Government says it has taken delivery of 69,030 doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccines from the Federal Government.
The vaccines arrived the Victor Attah International Airport, Uyo on Wednesday night on board a cargo plane owned by the Allied Air Services.
A statement by the Commissioner of Information and Strategy, Ini Ememobong on Thursday noted that the Commissioner of Health, Professor Augustine Umoh, received the vaccines on behalf of the state government.
According to the statement, Umoh had assured residents of the state of the safety of the vaccines and that the cold chain facility in the state was ready to preserve them.
“Akwa Ibom State government this evening took delivery of the 69,030 doses of Oxford AstraZeneca vaccines from the Federal Government.
“The Commissioner of Health received the vaccines on behalf of the state government and assured that the cold chain facility was ready to preserve the vaccines.
“The frontline health care workers will be the first to receive the vaccines, adding that the order for further administration of the vaccines will be done in phases,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of the Akwa Ibom State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Eno Attah, who spoke with newsmen on the vaccines, said the vaccines were distributed by the Federal Government of Nigeria through the National Primarily Healthcare Development Agency.
According to her, every state adopts similar processes for the collection, storage and administration of the vaccines and urged the designated receivers of the first batch of the vaccines to avail themselves of the unique opportunity to be the first to be vaccinated.
Attah said: “This is like every other vaccine that we have been administering on our children, therefore, it is safe and trusted.”