COVID 19 VACCINE JETS IN MALAWI
The much awaited Covid 19 AstraZeneca Vaccine arrived in the country on friday, 5th March 2021. The vaccine has been shipped in via the COVAX facility, a partnership between CEPI, Gavi, UNICEF and WHO. So far Malawi has received 360,000 doses of this Oxford AstraZeneca Vaccine from Mumbai India.
According to the Presidential Task Force on Covid 19, the vaccine will be first administered to the frontliners who include the health personnel and then the elderly after whom people with underlying conditions will be considered. This will target 20% of the population as a start, according to President Lazarus Chakwera. “The safety of the vaccine will be verified by our very own scientists in our labs and full information on it will be given out to the public so that no one is misled by social media propaganda”, Chakwera said during one of his weekly National address recently.
Malawi Health Equity Network (MHEN), George Jobe also shares these sentiments that if the Vaccine proves to work, the front liners, the elderly and Malawians with underlying conditions will have their risks lessened. Mr. Jobe says the vaccine will help to build a national resistance thereby lowering the threats brought by the pandemic.
He encouraged the targeted priority groups to partake of the vaccine so as to defeat the pandemic as a country. “Malawians should not be distracted by the various misconceptions and myths that have been making rounds on social media about the vaccine but they should partake of the vaccine in order to help defeat the pandemic as a nation. Jobe insisted that as MHEN, they do not subscribe to the thinking that the Government of Malawi can procure a vaccine which intends to harm her citizens.
Mr. Jobe then urged the Government to work closely with various stakeholders which includes the NGOs/CSOs, the faith community, traditional leaders and existing local Government structures for the success of the vaccine and to make sure that the vaccine reaches even the hard to reach areas.
NGOs are sitting on national technical committees on the Covid 19 vaccines, participating in the training and awareness raising which includes demand creation and community mobilization. It is critical that adequate information is given to the general public on the vaccine so as to improve its acceptability and national effectiveness.