Africa-Press – Liberia. The Minister of Health and head of the Incident Management System, Dr. Wilhemina Jallah, says there is absolutely no second dose of vaccines to be administered to the public, as the nation’s initial stock of 96,000 doses of the AstraZeneca jabs dries out.
“From today, there are no more first and second doses; we don’t have any vaccines for first and second dose”, Dr. Jallah told a weekly briefing at the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism in Monrovia Thursday, July 08, 2021.
However, she assured that the government is making numerous efforts to ensure a fresh supply of vaccines are in the country by the end of July and up to August.
According to the Health Minister, anyone missing second dose of the vaccines for 6-12 weeks is safe, calling on the public to exercise patience, pending arrival of additional consignment. According to Chief Medical Officer Dr. Frances Kateh, the expiration date for the current vaccines in the country is tomorrow, Saturday, July 10th.
Giving an update of the status of the third wave of the virus, Minister Jallah narrates that as of July 7, 2021, 32 new cases were recorded, saying, “to me, it’s far different from last month; we’re not seeing that much in our daily activities.”
She put the total number of confirmed cases at 5,026; active cases 2,375 with total deaths at 136, from March to July, while total recovery is at 2,516, and a total of 1026, 322 samples collected so far.
Dr. Jallah further disclosed 13 of the 15 counties are in response, and that additional five persons were admitted at the government treatment unit at StarBase, Bushrod Island, saying out of 58 patients there, 44 are on oxygen.
At the same time, she urged citizens departing Liberia to monitor the health protocol before travel to avoid further embarrassment. “You have to be very careful about your departure.”
“To our travelers, if you are tested positive and later come back with negative results just after a day or two, we will not give you a certificate, you should have to be retested for 7-10 days after the first test and the test has to be done at the union testing center.”
We don’t want people saying the system is corrupt, forgetting to know they are supporters of the corrupt act by the fact that they are desperate to leave will make them bribe people behind closed doors just to have their result out before it’s time she noted.
Liberia’s Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Francis Kateh had earlier disclosed there were no vaccines in storage, and health officials were trying to collect vaccines that were previously taken to counties where residents were unwilling to be vaccinated to redistribute them and administer a second dose in Montserrado County where the usage has increased.
“So where we are now is the fact that we do not have any vaccine now in our storage,” Dr. Karteh said during a live talk show on OK FM Wednesday, 7 July in Monrovia.
“But what we are doing, because we have distributed the vaccines to other counties and so forth, we are going through and trying to check what is left in those counties because we need to collect them and where we have people willing to take the vaccines now to give it to them,” he continued.
