-It is safe, His Lordship declares
By Chikezie Ogbonna
As part of measures to stem the spread of Covid-19 virus currently ravaging the world, The Catholic Bishop of Enugu Diocese, Most Rev. Callistus Onaga on the evening of Tuesday 30th march received the coronaavirus vaccination at the Bishop’s court, probably becoming one of the first Catholic Bishops to receive the vaccination in the country.
His Lordship and the entire house hold of the Bishop’s court comprising of Priests, Seminarians and other domestic staff members received the vaccine from Enugu state primary health team led by Dr. George Ugwu, the Executive Secretary of Enugu State Primary Health Care Development Agency.
Having received his vaccination, His Lordship encouraged all to get vaccinated as the world intensifies the fight against the rampaging virus.
Speaking to The Choice Flame, Bishop Onaga urged people to ignore the seeming propaganda campaign spreading against the vaccination and go for it. His Lordship declared it safe and compared it to the other vaccinations administered against yellow fever, measles, polio and many other debilitating viruses and diseases in the past.
“I am so happy that I have this opportunity to take this vaccine today. I advice everyone who love his life and is a child of God to do the same.
“Forget all the propaganda going around, we have taken other vaccines for yellow fever and the rest and I advice people to go for this so we can stem the spread of this thing. We are appealing to everyone, every Catholic and every Christian to go and take this vaccine. It will help us worship better and will help us return to normalcy”, His Lordship advised.
Also speaking to The Choice Flame, the Executive Secretary of Enugu State Primary Health Care Development Agency Dr. George Ugwu expressed his conviction that by vaccinating His Lordship, other people will see the need to get vaccinated and prevent this pandemic from spreading, as well as protect lives.
According to Dr. George while explaining the efforts taken so far by the state government and the need for people to key into the vaccination program as soon as they can, he said; “we have spent more than 40 minutes doing the vaccination today and we are sure that this vaccinations safe. Nearly Ten Thousand (10,000) residents of Enugu state have been vaccinated as we speak, and we have not heard any severe adverse effect. A very few persons have had small headaches and small pain in the body, but outside that, people are okay. The vaccine is well received and I encourage everyone to join hands with us to prevent the spread of this virus.”
Dr. George further revealed that vaccination can be done in designate centers in all the 17 Local Government Area of the state.
“In Enugu North alone, we have 9 centers like ESUT Teaching Hospital, Park Lane, Newhaven health center, Orthopedic hospital etc. It is available in Abakpa health center and even in 82 division centre.
“Because time is running and we are nearing the time we are going to be concluding the vaccination campaign. It is not a perpetual thing, I encourage people to go and take this vaccination”, he urged.
Just as the virus is still on the rampage across the globe, vaccine nationalism has become a new challenge the world is facing currently. Countries who have developed vaccines are already hoarding it because of the limitation in supply and the need to first achieve 100% vaccination if her citizens before exporting to other countries in need. Of this, Dr. George urged people to take the advantage of the opportunity the State Government in collaboration with the Federal Government and get vaccinated now.
At the conclusion of the dose 1 vaccination exercise, His Lordship and others who participated in the medical exercise were issued a green coloured Federal Ministry of Health Covid-19 vaccination card which has a bar code on it for effective verification and proof that the bearer has been vaccinated
Comment here