Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE government announced yesterday that the Covid -19 immunisation campaign is doing well, with more than 510,000 Tanzanians having been vaccinated since the exercise began on July 28th, this year.
The ‘Rapid and Participatory National Covid-19 Immunisation Campaign,’ run by the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children in partnership with the President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Government, PO-RALG), has increased the number of people who have been vaccinated.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan has also been imploring all relevant authorities, religious leaders and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to continue educating the public about the importance of immunization.
Chief Government Spokesperson, Mr Gerson Msigwa, told reporters in Morogoro yesterday while presenting a weekly report that the increase in vaccination centres from 550 to 6,784 has made it simpler for the public to get the jabs.
He noted that the government continues to emphasize the importance of people continuing to take all necessary Covid -19 preventive measures and turning up for vaccination at authorized health centres across the country.
“The immunization campaign is going well; as you know, we received 1,058,400 doses in July. So far, more than 51 per cent of vaccines have been administered throughout the country as of October 1, 2021,” he remarked.
Mr Msigwa added that health specialists have been dispatched to villages to reach Tanzanians whose efforts to get the shots were hampered by the considerable distance to inoculation centres.
According to him, Tanzania will receive the first consignment of 489,042 Sinopharm doses from China tomorrow, and the second consignment of 576,558 doses on October 8th this year, as part of the Covax facility.
Pfizer, Janssen, Moderna, Sinopharm, and Sinovac are the five vaccines that the government has approved for usage in the country so far. Tanzania plans to vaccinate 60 per cent of its citizens.
Meanwhile, the Kilimanjaro Regional Commissioner (RC), Mr Stephen Kagaigai, said over 30,000 people have been vaccinated against Covid-19 in Kilimanjaro, the number accounting to more than 50 per cent of the region’s Covid-19 quota, reports HECKON CHUWA from Moshi.
Mr Kagaigai made the remarks while opening a meeting of the regional primary health committee and health stakeholders on the implementation of the rapid and participatory national Covid-19 immunisation campaign, which was held in Moshi, Kilimanjaro Region.
“In the first phase, our region received a total of 60,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine whereas by September 28, 2021, a total of 36,730 people had been vaccinated,” he said, adding, the region’s administration is working day and night to ensure that all vaccines are administered by October 14th, this year.
Mr Kagaigai attributed the success achieved as far as the vaccination campaign was concerned in the region to the implementation of effective strategies that the regional leadership had set in the different areas of the region.
“In order to enhance this success, I would like to take this opportunity to direct the leadership of all the districts within the region, which have not conveyed primary health committee meetings to ensure that they hold such meetings immediately after this regional session,” he said.
He also directed the leaders in all the region’s districts to ensure that they conduct campaign evaluation sessions before October 15, this year, as well as receiving information on the continuing campaign of the Covid-19 vaccinations and take steps that would ensure the regional Covid-19 campaign targets achieved.
Speaking during the occasion, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) Northern Zone Senior Project Manager Dr Alphaxard Lwitakubi said healthcare providers were very important in making sure that people received accurate information concerning the Covid-19 vaccine.
“To achieve this end, there must be reliable strategies that would involve health practitioners so that they can get accurate information concerning the vaccine, so that they can provide them (information) to people”, he said.
He continued to say that the involvement of health stakeholders and various sectors from the Central Government to the village level will enable effective productivity in the Covid-19 campaign strategies.
