Lagos State has started making contacts with Covid vaccine manufacturers including Pfizer, Oxford–AstraZeneca, Moderna, amongst others.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, spoke on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme monitored by Radio Nigeria Kaduna.
He said the state had planned to vaccinate up to 50 per cent of the population of Lagos to develop ‘herd immunity’ to the virus.
Mr Sanwo-Olu explained that the organised private sector have expressed interest to support funding of the purchase of the vaccines asides from the ones planned by the Federal Government.
“We don’t have to vaccinate the 20 or 22 million population in Lagos. The plan is to ensure there is an herd immunity and that is about 50 to 60 per cent of the population and that is the target to meet.”
Lagos, home to over 20 million population, has recorded about 45,000 Covid infections which is over 37 per cent of the more 121,000 Covid cases recorded in the country since February 2020.
Mr Sanwolu said Many jobs were lost as airlines, hotels, banks, amongst others cut their workforce due to the crushing effect of the lockdown.
The governor had also noted that Lagosians can’t afford fresh lockdown and therefore urged them to adhere to preventive protocols to curb the spread of the virus.
On security, Mr Sanwolu admitted that the number of police officers manning Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre was inadequate for the city.
“We believe Lagos State is under policed in terms of the ratio. We believe that the population is also growing but we do not have the same growth in terms of the number of police officers that we have. That is some of the places where the imbalance lies,” he said while explaining his government’s efforts at combating crime.