Francis Ogbuagu 
The Edo State Primary Healthcare Development Agency in conjunction with partners have flag-off COVID-19 Scales 3.0 Vaccination in Benin City, the state capital. In his address at the event tagged; Strategy for Accelerating COVID-19 Vaccination in Edo, the Edo State Deputy Governor, Comrade Philip Shuaibu, represented by the Commissioner for Health, Prof,. (Mrs.) Akoria, pointed out that he is pleased with the progress made by the government to rid the state of the dreaded corona virus. She said; “it is heartwarming that today we continue the march to gradual return to normal with the commencement of SCALES 3.0 strategy for COVID-19 Vaccination in our resolve to collectively defeat the scourge of the virus.” According to him, “the Scales 3.0 campaign will be taking place in all the18 local government areas of the state.
Where vaccination centres will be established beyond our health facilities, adding that several vaccination centres, including organisations, religious houses, market places and other strategic locations with high human traffic would be targeted. The deputy governor further added that there was the need for more people to be vaccinated saying that when more than 70 percent of the entire population is vaccinated, the march towards defeating the dreaded disease could be guaranteed. Continuing, he said; “Our experience from the previous vaccination campaigns is that there is a lot of misconception and we need to focus on what the people are saying, why they do not want to be vaccinated so that we can deal with those challenges with a view to eradicating them so that herd-immunisation can be achieved” she concluded. One of the community leaders present at the event, Pa Wilberforce Osayande, applauded the state government for taking adequate steps to defeat COVID-19 scourge.
He said he had earlier taken the vaccine since last year advising those who have not taken the vaccines to go ahead and do so, as , according to him, ” the vaccine is safe and it is only when all of us have taken the vaccine that adequate protection from the scourge can be guaranteed”.
