Bauchi State governor, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, on Saturday, told people of the State to disregard the rumours and misinformation going round on the safety of Covid-19 vaccine.

He spoke after he got a jab of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine.

Speaking at the Banquet Hall, Goverment House in Bauchi shortly after he was vaccinated at an event to flag off Covid-19 vaccination in the state, Governor Mohammed said both the Federal Government and the Bauchi State government had thoroughly done their homework to establish the efficacy and safety of the vaccine.

According to the Governor, the vaccine was safe as it had been tested.

“The vaccine is safe because it has been tested and we don’t envisage any side effects. So, nobody should panic, it is for our benefit.

“I also urge you to dispel any rumour regarding the vaccines as you can see we are the first partakers and if we can take the vaccine, you too should not be afraid,” Governor Mohammed said.

He, however, warned that vaccination was not the end of the pandemic, declaring that all citizens must continue to adhere strictly to non-pharmaceutical interventions such as hand washing or using hand sanitiser, use of face mask and maintaining physical distancing.

In his address at the event, the chairman of state task force committee on Covid-19, Senator Baba Tela said that the 80,570 Astrazeneca doses of Covid-19 vaccines sent to the state by the Federal Government were the first batch of the vaccine meant for Bauchi State.

According to Tela who doubles as the State Deputy Governor, each individual was to get two doses of the vaccine, adding that after the first dose was administered, the second dose would be administered within two to three weeks later.

“The vaccines received by the government represents the first set because the total we are going to get in the first phase is 150,000 doses. Now we have got 80,570 to represent the first phase of the doses.

“After this official flag off, we have put in place modalities whereby we will transport the vaccines to all the 323 primary health care centres in all the 20 local government areas of the state and the 18 general hospitals chosen by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency as administration centres,” the task force chairman explained.

Tela added that the Bauchi State government was going to make vaccination as easy as possible.

According to him, after the flag-off ceremony, the 43,000 registered health workers in the State would be vaccinated, adding that, “after that, we will continue to administer the vaccine to people, until we exhaust the first sets of the vaccines.”

DailyPost