Mozambique | 70,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses for “groups at risk and those who have priority” to arrive between February and March – Watch

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Mozambique | 70,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses for “groups at risk and those who have priority” to arrive between February and March – Watch

4:43 CAT | 26 Jan 2021

Photo: TVM

Minister of Health Armindo Tiago said on Monday that Mozambique would receive its first batch of 70,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses between February and March. Under the COVAX initiative, further doses of the vaccine are expected to arrive in the country between May and June.

“We are making an effort to guarantee the vaccine [arrives] between the months of February and March, to protect groups at risk and those who have priority,” Minister Tiago said, meaning health professionals in the front line of the fight against Covid-19.

The minister pointed out that the purchase of the 70,000 doses to which he alluded depended on financial availability.

But the vaccine cannot be seen as the only solution to the coronavirus crisis, the minister went on. “We must continue to comply with prevention and control measures,” Tiago told a meeting with the Order of Doctors, Order of Nurses, Medical Association, Association of Nurses and the Association of Anesthetists, where mechanisms for a better management of the pandemic of Covid-19 were discussed.

Tiago reiterated assurances that “the Ministry of Health has enough personal protective equipment [PPE]” for all healthcare workers, and if this appeared not to be the case, “what may be happening is probably a management problem in health units, [because] we have the capacity to supply all the necessary equipment for all requests.”

Milton Tatia, president of the Medical Association of Mozambique, told the press that the parties agreed at the meeting that complete personal protection material, currently being distributed only to dedicated Covid-19 centres, would henceforth be available to all wards with patients hospitalised due to Covid-19.

“The distribution of the equipment will now be monitored by the parties [health professionals and the Ministry of Health],” he stressed.

Health professionals over 55 years of age or with illness considered to place them at heightened risk “will be excused from in-person clinical or work activities”, Dr Tatia said.

The Ministry of Health also announced the hiring of more health professionals in response to the increasing number of infections, deaths and hospitalizations.

By Julieta Zucula