TheCable

Akin Abayomi, Lagos commissioner for health, has explained why the state fixed N6,000 as administration fee for persons who want to receive the COVID vaccine at private facilities.

Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos, had announced the fee while flagging off the state’s mass vaccination exercise on October 27.

Giving the clarification in a statement issued on Sunday, Abayomi said the government is working with the private sector as part of efforts to ensure that the vaccination process covers those who prefer not to receive the vaccine at public facilities.

While noting that vaccination is free at public facilities, he said the fee for private sites will cover logistics, personnel, and other related costs.

“The State Government, through the Primary Health Care Board, does not have the capacity alone to ramp up vaccination to this massive level in such a short time and before the deadline, hence the need to include the private sector,” the statement reads.

“The public private partnership is similar to the strategy we deployed for escalating our COVID-19 testing which resulted in a dramatic increase in testing done in Lagos from an average of 200 a day to over 2,000 a day culminating in a total of 800,000 tests in less than a year and Lagos State accounting for more than 30% alone of all COVID-19 PCR tests done in Nigeria. This demonstrates the power of public private partnerships, with the inclusion of the significant capacity of the private sector but government retaining strict regulatory oversight and quality function.

“With this approach, we intend to ramp up our vaccination strategy using the existing public facilities as well as inclusion of some private facilities. It is imperative to emphasise that the vaccines administered in public facilities is free and would remain free to the public as they were contributed to us by the Federal Government and our donor partners, those wishing to receive the vaccines can go to any of the designated 206 government facilities and receive their dose totally free of charge.

“However, those that wish to receive the vaccines within the comforts of a private facility can do so at a minimal administrative cost of N6,000 for two doses which covers the cost that the private sector will incur to facilitate the administration of the vaccine which includes logistics, personnel, quality oversight, administrative and overhead costs.

“The cost will be proportionally lower for single dose or those wishing to take a single booster dose.”

Persons who wish to receive the vaccine at public facilities are expected to register here, while those who want to visit private vaccination sites can book their slots here.