The United Nation’s Children Fund UNICEF says 67 million children have missed out on vaccinations between 2019 and 2021, with vaccination coverage levels decreasing in 112 countries.
The UNICEF Nigeria, Chief of Health, Dr Eduardo Celades disclosed this at a media briefing to Launch the UNICEF State of the World Children Report in Abuja.
Dr Eduardo Celades said the report was the 1st indebt report done since the advent of covid19, stressing that Nigeria is the 2nd country in the world with the highest number of unvaccinated children amounting to 2.2 million children.
Photo: Nancy Anikaezie
The UNICEF Nigeria, Chief of Health however highlighted that Nigeria progressed on vaccination coverage especially during covid19 pandemic but was not enough.
He highlighted two major factors that caused the slow progress on vaccination to include weak health systems and the covid-19 pandemic
The UNICEF country Chief of Health, therefore called on the federal government to partner with the UNICEF to carry out an indebt anaysis to identify these children and vaccinate them to cover the immunity gap.
He explained that UNICEF will carry out a catch-up campaign to catch 1m children in seven hundred days.
