COVID-19: LAGOS GOVERNMENT DENIES SELLING OF VACCINE
Lagos State Government has denied rumors making the rounds that the Covid-19 Vaccine is being sold in some of the vaccination centers across the state.
Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, stated recently during an unscheduled visit to some vaccination centers that there was no truth in the allegations making the rounds.
Abayomi disclosed that the visit was totally unscheduled and part of Government strategy for monitoring the proper administration of the vaccine while also debunking the allegation of vaccine sales at any of the 88 vaccination sites, stating that the allegation at the Ikate vaccination site is “untrue and baseless”, stressing that the COVID vaccination protocols are strictly monitored to ensure accountability of every unit of the vaccine received by the State.
“This is Falomo Police medical facility, which has been in the press recently. This is an unscheduled visit and they did not know we were coming. We do this all the time; we pay unscheduled visits to our facilities without informing the management in order to find out firsthand and real-time how things are in the facilities”.
“The Commissioner of Police in charge of this facility is not aware we are coming and this is deliberate in order for us to find out if there is any truth in the allegations that have been made against the center, although we have done our investigation”, he said.
Revealing that the State government has vaccinated over 100,000 persons since the vaccination exercise started, Abayomi Speaking after monitoring activities at the vaccination site located inside the Police Hospital, Falomo, disclosed that the visit was to verify the allegations of malpractices and ensure that vaccination protocols are strictly implemented.
The Lagos State Government has reiterated that it will never compromise the vaccination protocols rolled out by the Federal Government, just as it debunked allegations that the State is deploying its own portal to register people and engaging in diversion and sales of vaccines.
Abayomi and his Information and Strategy counterpart, Mr. Gbenga Omotoso, visited the vaccination centers located inside the Police Hospital, Falomo, and the Mainland Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba to inspect the ongoing exercise.
He maintained that every unit administered to citizens is accounted for at every stage of the process while submitting that every unit of vaccine administered tallies with the vaccination card and its barcode, as part of the quality assurance and accountability framework put in place.
He stated that it is difficult and near impossible for any unit of vaccine to be sold without being detected, saying that “vaccinators are mandated to return every unit vaccine vial after use to us for proper audit; we then destroy the vial ourselves after the proper audit has been taken and every vial accounted for”.
The Commissioner implored citizens to desist from making unsubstantiated allegations and comments about the vaccination. He however challenged anyone with evidence of corrupt practices to come forward with it, noting that false allegations and rumors peddled by some citizens about the vaccination is inimical to the goal of the campaign, which the State government is striving to achieve.
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