Mozambique: Government wants to vaccinate 16 million people by 2022

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Mozambique: Government wants to vaccinate 16 million people by 2022

8:41 CAT | 05 Mar 2021

File photo: Lusa

Mozambique wants to vaccinate 16 million people against Covid-19 by 2022, a target that corresponds to the entire population eligible for inoculation in the country, the Ministry of Health said on Friday.

“We will do everything so that the entire eligible population is vaccinated by 2022 and for that, we will have to know how to manage the vaccination process,” said the deputy national director of health, Benigna Matsinhe.

In a more optimistic scenario, the vaccination target can be reached by the end of the first quarter of next year and in a more conservative outlook by the end of next year, she added.

“It will be an extremely long and difficult process, taking into account the financial difficulties of our country and the complexity in the production and availability of the vaccines themselves,” she said.

Matsinhe said that the number of people to be vaccinated until next year excludes children under 15 years old and pregnant women, since the vaccines so far available in the world have not been tested on individuals from those population groups.

In addition to the 200,000 doses of the Verocell vaccine offered in February by China and which will be used for the vaccination campaign that is launched on Friday, the country will resort to drugs available through the international Covax initiative, a mechanism coordinated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to distribute vaccines to poor countries.

“We will explore all available vaccine options either through bilateral or multilateral mechanisms such as Covax,” Benigna Matsinhe said.

Matsinhe showed confidence in the adherence of the Mozambican population to the vaccination against Covid-19, advocating an effective communication campaign to erase the fears about the effectiveness of the vaccines.

The country, she said, will carry out studies and monitor the results of the administration of vaccines against Covid-19, to determine their degree of effectiveness.

The vaccination campaign launched Friday provides for the immunisation of about 60,000 health professionals, a number that will absorb about 60% of the 200,000 doses donated by China.

Watch the launch of the vaccination campaign ceremony in the video below:

Mozambique’s COVID 19 vaccination plan launched today by Prime Minister Agostinho do Rosário. Team Europe is ready to support it, notably through COVAX initiative 🇪🇺🤝🇲🇿 pic.twitter.com/MpPNvi8gGl

— Antonio Sánchez-Benedito Gaspar (@SBeneditoEU) March 5, 2021