Mozambique: Government launches Covid-19 national vaccination plan – Watch

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Mozambique: Government launches Covid-19 national vaccination plan – Watch

7:54 CAT | 08 Mar 2021

Photo: MISAU

The Mozambican government formally launched on Friday the national vaccination plan against the Covid-19 pandemic, with the rollout of the first vaccines scheduled to start on Monday throughout the country.

The first priority group for vaccination consists of health professionals, whose number is put at over 65,000. Throughout the inoculation drive, the health professionals will receive two doses of the Sinopharm vaccine, donated in February by China. There should be an interval of 21 days between the doses.

The first phase of vaccination will also cover staff at old people’s homes and nursing homes, diabetics, and the defence and security forces. The scheduled four phases of the campaign, budgeted at 26 million US dollars, will, by the first half of 2022, cover nearly 17 million people. This is virtually the entire adult Mozambican population. Excluding from the vaccination are children under the age of 15 and pregnant women.

Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario, who chaired the launch ceremony in Maputo, said the national vaccination plan must be seen as a long term guideline that can be adjusted periodically whenever needed, because it is not certain when the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic will end.

The onset of the vaccination is a glimmer of hope in the arduous battle to stop the spread of the disease, Rosario said, adding that in order to cover nearly 17 million people, government efforts are underway to ensure the acquisition, in the future, of more Covid-19 vaccines from both bilateral and multilateral partners, as well as under the COVAX global initiative.

The latest figures from COVAX indicate that Mozambique is entitled to receive slightly more than two million doses under this initiative in the near future.

The identification of the priority groups, Rosario said, was based on the recommendations made by the World Health Organisation (WHO), good health practices and experiences from other countries as well as data from Covid-19 epidemiological surveys carried out in the country.

The great challenge facing the world at the moment, he said, lies in the weak capacity for mass production of the vaccines and the subsequent distribution within a short period of time, to answer the needs of all countries.

Rosario warned that the vaccination must be seen as complementary to the measures to halt the spread of Covid-19, and will not in itself stop the pandemic. It therefore remained essential that everybody heed basic preventive measures such as frequent hand washing, the correct use of face masks and social distancing.

Health Minister Armindo Tiago told the meeting that his sector will monitor the acceptable risk/benefit relations for all Covid-19 vaccines registered in the country.

A unit in the Health Ministry “will follow these effects so that, in real time, we can take appropriate measures”, he said.

The main purpose of the vaccination plan, he said, is to provide directives for the prioritized vaccination in a safe and effective manner, ensuring equity and quality. The plan would require the efforts not only of the government, but also of the cooperation partners. “Vaccinating the people is the responsibility of everyone”, stressed Tiago.

“We shall implement surveillance measures”, he added, “to ensure that any adverse effects from the vaccines are detected at an early stage”.

Tiago said the first group to be vaccinated, the health professionals, will include gravediggers (added at the request of Maputo Municipal Council), and final year medical students.

“We shall have a digital electronic instrument to guarantee that the process is implemented rapidly”, he added.

Tiago noted that Covid-19 vaccines have become “one of the rarest commodities in the world”. The government’s strategy for obtaining enough vaccines “involves two main mechanisms – bilateral, including donations and purchases, and multilateral”. There were currently two multilateral initiatives, he said – Covax, and the initiative proposed by the African Union.