The Lagos State Government has announced that people vaccinated against the coronavirus disease may need to get a third shot. This was made known by the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi noting that Nigerians may be required to take extra shots of the vaccine to stay safe. Abayomi made the remark during a briefing in Ikeja.
The Commissioner said, “So we know that the vaccine is certainly protecting the population from severe disease and death. So the question is, as the virus is changing, it may require that we need to give you more than two doses.
“You may require a booster which is the first, second, and subsequent doses because we have also discovered that even though the vaccine stops you from getting seriously sick, it may not necessarily stop you from catching COVID.
“We do know that some people even who are fully vaccinated with two doses will still catch COVID and some people will get quite sick and occasionally, some people may die. But certainly, the people that are dying who are not vaccinated are much higher than the people who are dying who have been vaccinated.”
Professor Abayomi disclosed that the state government plans to vaccinate 30 percent of Lagos residents by the end of the year. According to him, scientists around the world are toying with the idea that a third or fourth dose may be required.
The members of the Diplomatic Community in Lagos earlier scored the state government high on its COVID-19 response and management effort which have seen Nigeria’s commercial capital overcome three successive waves of the global pandemic.
Members of the Diplomatic communities during a visit to the Commissioner agreed that the Lagos State Government has done a lot to mitigate the scourge of the infection while pledging to continue to offer support to the COVID-19 Lagos response directly and indirectly.
The Consul General of France in Nigeria, Laurence Monmayrant in her remarks said she was impressed by the biosecurity facilities that were put in place at IDH by the State Government to prosecute the war against the global pandemic.
Monmayrant said, “I’m really impressed by what I have seen today, I enjoyed the visit because this is really something we’ve been looking at since the beginning of the pandemic, we’ve seen that Lagos State has done a lot.
“But it is one thing to read and see it in the media report and it is another thing to come and see on the spot what is happening here, so it was a very interesting day here today.”
She, therefore, stressed the need to ensure that more citizens are vaccinated as a way to mitigate the new wave of the pandemic.