8.5 Million Tanzanians Fully Vaccinated Against Covid-19
A TOTAL of 10 million Tanzanians have so far received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccines and over 8.5 million have been fully vaccinated, as of Wednesday this week, according to Health Minister Ummy Mwalimu.
The minister made the revelations after holding a closed-door meeting with the Global Lead Coordinator for Covid-19 Vaccine Delivery Partnership (CoVDP), Mr Ted Chaiban.
The two met to fine-tune the progress of the vaccine programme before they held a joint press conference later in the day in Dodoma.
Mr Chaiban is in the country for an official four-day visit to oversee progress in implementation of the vaccination coverage objectives and identify a way forward to address any bottlenecks to scale-up the vaccination programme.
A key part of his visit took place on Tuesday where he met with Vice President Dr Philip Mpango to discuss strategies to accelerate Covid-19 vaccination uptake in Tanzania and meet its vaccination coverage goals.
Mr. Chaiban has also been meeting with other high-level government officials, development partners, communities, religious leaders and other key stakeholders during his visit.
“I congratulate the government for its efforts in promoting vaccination against Covid-19. I am here to take stock of where Tanzania is in meeting its vaccination coverage objectives and identify a way forward to address any bottle necks and scale-up the vaccination programme,” said Mr Chaiban.
The meeting with the minister of health was also attended by the Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr Mwigulu Nchemba and the Minister of State in the President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Governance), Innocent Bashungwa.
Mr Chaiban stressed that the pandemic is far from over and that the risk of new variants, especially in under-vaccinated populations, remains high.
“Covid-19 is still with us and we need to ensure that we protect those most at risk, including the elderly, people with underlying conditions, frontline health workers and those working in sectors such as tourism and hospitality,” he said.
Mr Chaiban was appointed as CoVDP Global Lead Coordinator, at the level of Assistant Secretary-General, in February 2022 by the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.
As of early July 2022, almost 12 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines had been administered globally. According to the WHO, 61 per cent of the world population has been fully vaccinated.
The WHO Africa and Eastern Mediterranean regions account for the largest proportion of the unvaccinated for the total population.
BY n Daily News.
