TheCable

Simon Lalong, governor of Plateau, has issued a 72-hour ultimatum to residents of the state to get vaccinated against COVID or risk being barred from assessing public offices.

The Plateau governor announced the ultimatum on Monday at the flag-off of the COVID mass vaccination campaign in Jos.

Lalong added that residents who are 18 years and above must present evidence of COVID vaccination or a negative PCR test result done within 72 hours to gain access to any public office.

He said the directive became necessary to ensure public safety against COVID, following the discovery of the Omicron variant in Nigeria.

“All citizens of 18 years and above will henceforth show evidence of vaccination or present a negative COVID-19 PCR test result done within 72 hours to gain access to any public office,” Lalong said.

“This will also go hand-in-hand with observing all COVID-19 safety protocols in schools, markets, banks, churches, mosques, among other places.”

Lalong, while inaugurating a task force for the mass vaccination campaign, also received a booster dose of the COVID vaccine, and appealed to residents for cooperation.

“The task force which we are inaugurating today has a membership that consists of health professionals and eminent stakeholders from across the state with the mandate to create the desired attention required for prompt sensitisation and consolidation of achieved gains in the area of vaccination,” he said.

On his part, Williams Wadzingi, the state coordinator of the World Health Organisation (WHO), said less than 50 percent of residents in Plateau have been vaccinated against COVID.

Wadzingi asked the state government and other stakeholders to make concerted efforts to address vaccine hesitancy in the state.