A total of 98,271 persons have been fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 pandemic in Benue state.
This was made known by the State Health Educator, Benue State Primary Healthcare Board, Mr. Emmanuel Beeka at a One- Day Media Refresher Orientation workshop organised by Breakthrough ACTION Nigeria (BA-N) for media professionals in Makurdi.
Mr. Beeka explained that of the number, 72,991 persons received the AstraZeneca vaccine, 25,160 received the Moderna vaccine while 120 persons got the Pfizer jab.
He said there are 298 vaccination sites across the state, “and these comprises 206 public health facilities, 11 private health facilities and 49 outreaches.
“We also have a mass vaccination sites. These are where you can access all the vaccines if you were vaccinated anywhere outside the state and you want to take your second dose, you can go there and access your second dose which you cannot get elsewhere.”
On his part, the State Epidemiologist, Dr. Sam Ngishe who put the total samples collected across the 23 LGA of the state at 48,976 said 2,141 COVID-19 cases had so far been confirmed in the state
He said all the LGAs had confirmed cases, stressing that only two LGAs had so far recorded fatality with Makurdi recording 24 deaths and Gboko LGA recording one death; bringing the total number of COVID-19 deaths in the state so far to 25.
He stated that 1,775 infected persons had so far been treated and discharged in the state since the first recorded case in March 2020.
Also speaking, representative of Breakthrough ACTION Nigeria, Mr. Eze Eze urged media practitioners to join the campaign to dispel the misconceptions and conspiracy theories that trailed the COVID-19 vaccines in order to get the people fully vaccinated against the virus.