COVID-19: FG To Bar Unvaccinated Workers From Offices

The federal government has said that unvaccinated federal workers have until December 1 to get vaccinated, failure of which they would not be allowed into their offices.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, said this Friday in Abuja during the national flag-off of the COVID-19 mass vaccination campaign.

He said, “All federal government employees are, therefore, reminded that December 1, 2021 remains the deadline for all to show evidence of being vaccinated or a PCR negative test result done 72 hours before being allowed into their offices.

“I, therefore, urge all public servants that are yet to be vaccinated to take advantage of this mass vaccination to receive their vaccines in order to protect themselves and their loved ones. Remember, no one is protected until we are all protected.”

Mustapha said that in spite of achievements recorded during the first and second phases of COVID-19 vaccination in the country, Nigeria was still far from achieving the national target of vaccinating 70 per cent of its eligible target population to move towards attaining herd immunity by 2022.

He said the low level of vaccination and developments around the world had combined to drive the adoption of the COVID-19 mass vaccination campaign strategy.

The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said the country’s aim was to vaccinate 55million residents by the end of January 2022, which is 50 per cent of the target population.

Dr Faisal Shuaib, the executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), said 5,989,480 Nigerians had received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as at November 19, while a total of 3,341,094 Nigerians have received their second dose and were fully vaccinated.

He advised states that are yet to commence mass vaccination to expedite action towards doing so.