Over 157 residents of Kwara State have benefited from the Covid-19 Testing and Vaccination outreach in work places organised by the state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
The gesture of goodwill was part of the union’s intervention and proactive measures to ensure adequate prevention against Covid-19 spread in work places.
The peer educators that were trained by the labour union after the awareness campaign aimed at getting the workers to go for testing and vaccination, were fully engaged to gather workers from different ministries in the state.
The testing and vaccination that started on Thursday and ended on Friday recorded impressive turn out of the people.
Speaking at the flag off ceremony of the 3-day intervention programme to curtail the menace of the pandemic in work places, Muritala Saheed, Kwara State Chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and Coordinator, NLC Covid-19 Response Mechanism Project explained that the project, themed ‘Sensitisation and Social Mobilisation for Uptake of Covid-19 Testing and Vaccination: A Test Case of Our Readiness for Emergency Situation’ was meant for workers to go for testing and Vaccination against the virus.
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“We are using the Sensitisation and social mobilisation for uptake of Covid-19 Testing and Vaccination as veritable leverage to put ourselves in a vantage position to test run our preparedness on how to manage future emergencies like coronavirus pandemic or outbreak of epidemic in the country.
“The project will certainly prepare the NLC and working people of Nigeria to be in a healthy environment and as well be productive.
“We call on employers of labour to take measures to minimise the risk of Covid-19 transmission among workers, visitors, and all those who are involved in the business with the workplace by ensuring that there is proper hygiene in the workplaces,” Saheed said.
NLC had earlier trained leaders from various unions and organizations on requisite strategies to curb the spread of COVID-19 infection through testing and vaccination.
In his submission, Tahir Hashim, Assistant Secretary General (NLC), Abuja, submitted that the programme aimed to upscale awareness among Nigerians to be tested and vaccinated.
According to him, different variants of SARS-Cov-2 have been identified so far; Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Omicron with main symptoms of fever, tiredness, sore throat among others.
“There is no cure for COVID-19. However, vaccines are available to reduce morbidity and mortality,” he said.
Hashim informed that the programme, globally funded to undertake the project to complement the efforts of the government on public health management in Nigeria, adding that the project is being supervised by National Agency for the Control of Aids (NACA).
On the importance of Covid-19 Vaccination, Yunus Sarat, the medical team lead from the Kwara State Primary health care development agency said the vaccine is very crucial for all to be immune, advising that “it is very important for people to take all doses because we may have further occurrence.”
She debunked the notion about side effects of the vaccine in the body; clarifying that people are with different kind of body systems and definitely they will have different reactions after taking the vaccine.
“The reaction is called Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI), and it
depends on the body. The vaccine is safe and effective to protect our body and will guarantee strong immunity,” she said.
Oniyangi Abdulgafar, however, informed that testing is for one to know his or her status and it has to be repeated every two weeks interval.
He disclosed that all tests conducted for the project came out to be negative.
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