INTERSOS operates in the state of Borno as part of the COVAX initiative to strengthen the vaccination campaign against Covid-19 and support the local health system
Good news from Nigeria, where the action of INTERSOS has produced a significant increase in vaccinations against Covid-19, with 18,000 doses administered during the month of June in Borno State, in an area affected by a decade-long conflict and a dramatic humanitarian emergency. This is a surge compared to the approximately 2,000 vaccinations administered in August 2021, at the beginning of the program, but also compared to the 5,000 administered in January 2022. “From February to June the vaccination campaign has undergone a strong acceleration thanks to the success of information campaigns and the improvement of logistics and coordination of the various actors, thus allowing to optimize the planning of the new, important financial resources dedicated to the campaign”, explains Andrea Accardi, coordinator of the COVAX task force of INTERSOS.
This was also possible thanks to the help of community health volunteers, who supported spreading awareness on the importance of vaccination. “This synergy between local communities and humanitarian workers is fundamental for the success of the vaccination campaign” comments Accardi. “These are numbers that encourage us to raise our final expectations. Another positive data concerns the reduced average cost per single vaccination, which with this trend is expected to be only 4.5 euros at the end of the campaign”.
To date, INTERSOS operators are working in 9 different Local Government in the State of Borno. “The national health system should capitalize on this initiative to ensure continuous improvement of its services. However, we must not let our guard down, but continue with community awareness actions ” recalls Andrea Accardi, “we must increase the match between supply and demand, improving our ability to make the best use of the available funds. In addition, we need not only to expand the number of vaccination sites in each LGA, but also the number of community volunteers engaged”.
INTERSOS has supported the COVAX initiative since the beginning of 2021 with the aim of making vaccination accessible to the most vulnerable populations. In particular, INTERSOS directly supported the vaccination campaign in Nigeria and Yemen.
To further support the COVAX initiative, INTERSOS created a questionnaire, the Vaccine Hesitancy Survey, which was carried out in eight countries of intervention – Burkina Faso, Yemen, Lebanon, Jordan, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Chad and the Central African Republic. – reaching a total of 5,332 people. The purpose of the survey was to identify obstacles and resistances to vaccination against Covid-19, and through the data collected, to have an overview of the effectiveness of the vaccination campaign and the information activities developed together with the communities. The results obtained are extremely important because they can help us to remove all those aspects that can hinder the choice to be vaccinated, from the lack of adequate information to the distance of the vaccination center from your home. The data collected confirm that a well-informed population is a population that wants to undergo vaccination, while incorrect information brings with it fake news and fears that can endanger individuals and society.