The government of Somalia has announced that the country has received 300,000 doses of Astrazeneca vaccines as part of the COVAX project which is aimed at distributing vaccines globally.
The vaccine comes on time as the country faces a second wave of the virus, noting in its announcement that the government said that the first jabs would be targeted at the front-line health workers and those that are most vulnerable. The statement read that:
“The first consignment of vaccines targets, as recommended by the COVID-19 National Task Force, the country’s frontline workers, elderly and people with chronic health conditions and it aims to reduce deaths and diseases caused by COVID-19″
Somalia’s Health Minister, Fawziya Abikar Nur, urged all health workers and all those who have been designated to take the first doses of the Vaccines in the country to try and receive from the first batch which is available at the moment, noting that:
“The arrival of the COVID-19 vaccines happens at a critical time as Somalia is now experiencing a new wave of the epidemic. It can only be contained if all countries stand together, Somalia included”
It is the plan of the Somalian government plans to vaccinate as much as twenty percent of its more than fifteen million population as it receives the vaccines from COVAX, while actively sketching out ways to secure funds with which to purchase more doses to vaccinate the rest of the population in the country.
