By Stanley Onyekwere
The FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello has taken his booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, just two weeks after resuming official duties, following successful recovery from the dreaded disease.
Recall that the Minister had received his first and second doses of the COVID vaccine, at different intervals in 2021, after the commencement of the vaccination programme in the nation’s capital city.
Bello, while speaking with a journalists, after taking his booster shot last Friday, called on residents of the FCT, to ensure that they get vaccinated with the first, second and booster doses, because the vaccines do help save lives.
While thanking the Federal Government for ensuring the availability of the vaccines for Nigerians, the Minister said” my message to us is let us all get vaccinated.
“For those who have been vaccinated for the first and second dose, I advise them to go for the booster. I will take all the recommended shots because I don’t want to go through what I went through again.
“I tell you, from the figures I get from our Public Health Department, a hundred percent of the deaths that we experienced in the FCT during the last few weeks as a result of COVID-19 were from those who were not vaccinated. So, the thing is that for those that are vaccinated, chances are that their cases will be mild, like my own case”.
Furthermore, the Minister who recounted his unpleasant encounter with the disease, noted although he was not hospitalized, but for three weeks, he was not productive, as he was quarantined in his residence.
In his words: “I thank God Almighty that I took the first and second doses of the COVID vaccine, because on the 31st of December 2021, I was tested positive for COVID-19 and even though I was told it was mild, I know what I experienced.
“Although I was not hospitalized, I was quarantined in my residence for three weeks because subsequently, even after taking the medication, I tested positive twice. It was the third time that I got a negative result. If I had not taken the first and second doses, probably what has happened to many of my dear ones would have happened to me” the Minister added.
“I tell you, even the mildness of the disease was something else because it hits you in many directions. When I had it, no matter how strong I felt during the day, for about 15, 20 minutes around 6pm, when I’m seated, I just drop asleep and then after 15 minutes, I’m able to turn up again. This is aside of the sore throat, the headaches and all the weakness you get especially in your joints. I had to change my course of medicine after the first 10 days.
“I didn’t go out of the house, I never had a chance to do my work and the multiplier effect was tremendous because even now, I’m just trying to cope, to clear all those files that I was not able to handle when I was under quarantine”.
Also speaking, the Secretary for Health and Human Services of the FCTA, Dr Abubakar Tafida disclosed that a total of 433,000 people in the FCT have taken the first dose and 286,000 have had the second dose and so far, about 12,000 have taken the booster shot.
Tafida reiterated that since the 30th of November, a total of 16 deaths had occurred as a result of COVID-19, and none of the victims had been vaccinated.
Other officials of the FCTA, including the Chief of Staff to the Minister, Bashir Mai-Bornu also took the booster shot after the Minister.
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