In order to fight the Covid-19 pandemic head-on, Zambia is all set to receive 151,200 doses of Johnson and Johnson Covid-19 vaccines, according to media reports. The doses are expected to arrive by Wednesday and the government hopes it will improve the chances of fighting the pandemic.
Kennedy Malama, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health in charge of Technical Services mentioned that the vaccines will be concentrated in provinces where vaccination demand is high.
During a Covid-19 briefing, he told the media, “Our plan is that this consignment will be tailored to the provinces which are fast-moving because now our strategy is that as we receive the vaccines, we ought to use them in the shortest period of time.”
Even since the vaccination programme was launched on April 14, Zambia has been administering the AstraZeneca vaccine that has to be available through the COVAX facility. Till now, Zambia has received two consignments so far.
The government also mentioned that they are encouraged by the progress made so far, with 2.8 percent of the eligible population so far receiving dose one and 0.8 percent receiving dose two. Zambia has also targeted to vaccinate around 8.4 million people to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. Zambia has recorded 187,602 cases in total and the total number of deaths stood at 3,138.