A communique issued at the end of a 1-day workshop facilitated by the
The workshop hopes to shed light on the importance of vaccination in the fight against COVID-19, provide an update on the vaccination exercise in
Introduction:
The theme of the workshop was Closing the Gap in COVID-19 Vaccination: Role of the Private Sector. It was aimed at identifying the gaps in the vaccination exercise in the country, providing valuable insights into how the gap can be closed and fostering sustainable collaboration between the Public and the Private Sectors to close the gap and galvanise the exercise to ramp up the process and take the country to HERD-IMMUNITY in the shortest possible time.
Presentations and Discussions:
The President of the
She further outlined various ways the private sector can sustainably augment the vaccination exercise as follows:
- Secure additional doses to augment the Government's supply of COVID-19 vaccines.
- Provide storage infrastructure, freight vehicles and facilities with the required technology and undertake capacity augmentation wherever required.
- Implement innovative financing mechanism.
- Develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on COVID-19 vaccine inventory management, safety protocols and fraud management and train existing workforce on the same.
- Provide World Class private healthcare facilities to provide vaccination across the country.
- Provide technology platforms with the ability to exchange/upload data with government IT interfaces.
She further drew inferences from various parts of the world where the private sectors have significantly contributed to the success of vaccination across the different value-chain.
The Honourable Commissioner of Health for Lagos State, Prof.
Efforts must be intensified to achieve herd-immunity at the latest by the second quarter of 2022.
He identified 4 strategic priorities of the State in the vaccination exercise as:
1. Reduce Death
2. Improve System Resilience
3. Prevent Clinical Harm
4. Prevent Economic Harm
All of this can be better achieved by collaboration with the private sector.
The National Incident Manager for COVID-19 and coordinator of the
The President of the
That singular act of comradeship significantly reduced the pressure on the government and ensured the country was able to manage the crisis appreciably.
They advocated for effective collaboration across the vaccination value chain with the government playing oversight and regulatory role while the Private Sector deploy their expertise and network across different strata to implement agreed framework.
Abubakar further emphasised the significance of vaccination from an economic angle. He informed that the financial burden of getting vaccinated is undoubtedly not in the cost of the vaccine itself but what is lost in not getting vaccinated and helping in achieving herd immunity which would be in multiple folds compared to the cost of the vaccine.
Recommendations:
At the end of the presentations and deliberations, recommendations were made as follows:
- A collaboration framework should be developed between the public and private sectors, with line items highlighting the scope and roles of stakeholders.
- A team of relevant stakeholders' representatives should be formed to deliberate and develop the framework.
- The government should provide necessary conducive environmental and implementation policies.
- Standard Operating Procedures and Memorandum of Agreement with specific terms and conditions must be developed and executed by all stakeholders.
- Milestones and specific timelines must be given to each task considering the required urgency to fully implement the vaccination exercise.
- Adequate communication plans to incorporate health education and health promotions must be put in place.
- A collaborative funding structure with well-established term sheets must be developed and adhered to.
- An all-inclusive approach embracing the involvement of all stakeholders (governments, private corporates, media, and individuals) is required to significantly ramp up the vaccination scheme.
Conclusion:
It was unanimously agreed that the above recommendations should be set in motion quickly, and implementation should commence forthwith.
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