Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde today flagged off the distribution of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines in the state even as he received the first jab of the Vaccine.
Speaking at the flag-off of the distribution, the Governor said he didn’t want to take the vaccine because he has a very low tolerance for physical pain but noted that he had to show leadership and let people know they have to be protected.
Makinde further added that he ordered a sterility test on the vaccines because he wanted to be sure the vaccines to be distributed to the people were correctly stored and not polluted.
In his words, “when I asked questions about the origin of the vaccine, they said that the batch that was sent to Nigeria came from India. It’s not that I don’t like India or I don’t believe in their products, but I had to be sure they were handled correctly.
” This vaccine was instructed to be stored at a particular temperature. I wanted to validate that the vaccines that we will give to the people of Oyo state have been correctly handled and are not polluted.
“The two labs that worked on it came out with the same result that the vaccine is good and proper for consumption. It didn’t take me 24 hours after that to accept and agree to come for the administration.”
Commenting on the online registration process, the Governor said that the state designed its local platform because it needed to make more data available to the public. He added that the registration process is open to everyone and simple.
He said, “As regards the online registration, in Oyo state, we rightly pointed that there are data that should be available on the online platform and we said if the people at the national level have designed theirs and we feel it wasn’t adequate, we decided to design our own local platform and it didn’t take 24 hours before the national copied Oyo state and updated their own platform.
“We will continue to set the pace here in Oyo state and I want to let our people know that the process is open and simple. You don’t have to bribe anybody to get vaccinated and we will continue to monitor the process.”
Gov Makinde also noted that the number of doses given to the state will not go round and promised that the state will augment by going to buy on its own when needed
“We know that 127,000 is nothing when you compare it to the number of people that we have to vaccinate in Oyo state but we will continue using whatever has been given to us and where we need to augment and go on our own to buy, we will do it when we get to that point.”
He subsequently called on the residents to trust the government and the health family in Oyo state and declared the vaccine safe for use.
