Mozambique: Country has enough Covid-19 vaccine doses for all adults – president

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Mozambique: Country has enough Covid-19 vaccine doses for all adults – president

2:53 CAT | 20 Jan 2022

FILE PHOTO - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: TVM]

Mozambique already has enough doses of vaccines against Covid-19 to immunise the entire adult population, which is the country’s goal, the president, Filipe Nyusi, has declared.

“We already have available in the country sufficient amount of vaccination for the entire eligible population” of about 16 million people, the head of state said during an address to the nation on easing restrictions put in place to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus that causes the disease.

“So, in the next four months, we intend to reach the target of vaccinating about five million more people across the country,” he added.

Nyusi said Mozambique that served as an example to the rest of southern Africa for having already reached half of its target.

At least 10.3 million people have had one dose of vaccine and about 8.5 million have had a full course, according to the latest official data.

Nyusi also announced the start of the administration of booster doses to people aged 60 or over, people with co-morbidities and pregnant women, and also of the vaccination for adolescents aged 15 and over. Currently all those 18 and over are eligible.

Mozambique has had 2,140 deaths due to Covid-19 out of 220,908 confirmed coronavirus cases, with 88% of the latter having recovered and 140 currently in hospital.

Worldwide, Covid-19 has caused 5,553,124 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to the most recent assessment by the Agence France-Presse.

The respiratory disease is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, detected in late 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China.

A new variant, Omicron, classified as worrying and very contagious by the World Health Organisation (WHO), has been detected in southern Africa and, since South African health authorities sounded the alert in November, has become dominant in several countries.

Watch the TVM report.