THE government has received a total of 6,408,950 Covid-19 vaccine doses with authorities now seeking to upgrade campaigns to have more people vaccinated, including taking doses to churches in Christmas services today.
Vaccines available include Sinopharm, Janssen and Pfizer-BioNTech delivered through the COVAX global vaccine sharing facility, starting mid this year.
The rise in available vaccine doses follows the reception yesterday of 376,320 doses of Moderna vaccine doses, sufficient to inoculate 188,160 people against Covid-19 infection or serious effects.
Dr Dorothy Gwajima, the Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, said the total consignment of 6.4m vaccines will protect 3,204,475 people countrywide, mainly requiring a person to take two jabs to reach reliable immunity against the virus.
At an airport ceremony in Dar es Salaam, Dr Gwajima saluted the COVAX facility working with the World Health Organization (WHO), the GAVI Alliance and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for facilitating the donations.
She emphasised on the need for people to turn out for vaccination, underlining that the vaccines are safe and WHO approved. They will help to enhance the pace in attaining the 60 percent target of vaccinated people among the adult population.
“These vaccines are in hospitals and special health centres, we encourage the public to go and get the jabs to help strengthen their bodies’ immunity,” she said.
She commended President Samia Suluhu Hassan for valuing people’s health, leading and encouraging them to get vaccinated for the country’s progress.
He wanted leaders of all levels to strengthen awareness programmes and 4ensure that people are educated to know the importance of the vaccines.
Prior to this, Tanzania had received 500,000 Pfizer vaccine doses in November from the US government and in early October it received 1,065,600 doses of Sinopharm vaccines donated by the Chinese government via the COVAX facility.
In July, the government received over a million doses of the single-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine from the United States, with other donations following later.
Regional authorities in Singida intend to use today’s Christmas congregations to encourage people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The move is part of the door to door vaccination encouragement drive started last week, where the government launched the second phase of the inoculation campaign.
Health administrators target vaccinations of 80,000 to 100,000 people countrywide on a daily basis, the launching affirmation noted.
The regional medical officer, Dr January Milulu said they will effectively use this festive season to promote COVID-19 jabs, with hopes that the region can vaccinate up to 360 people per day. Inoculation campaigns will be conducted at other opportune areas including markets, he stated.
Dr Milulu met with other health officials before embarking on a house to house campaign to ensure that residents turn out for COVID-19 inoculation jabs.
He was persuaded that the Christmas congregations could also be used to vaccinate people against the disease, saying that health officials would visit prayer houses to send the message, and have jabs on hand. Vehicles with a public address system for outreach to residents to enhance awareness would be located in churches, he stated.
An average, 100 people were receiving the jabs since the rollout was launched in late July, a figure that the regional leadership wants increased to 360 per day.
In previous months, an idea echoed by Dr Baraka Nzobo, a public health specialist in the ministry though he expressed expectations of higher inoculation after the festive season. Rollout officers need to reach residents and vaccinate them at home, farms and other public venues, she emphasised.
“To reach the government’s target of vaccinating 3,000 people in Singida, we must follow people at their localities, working places and farms,” she said, noting that the second phase of the vaccination campaign mainly focuses on rural communities.
Over one million Tanzanians came out for vaccination starting July 28 when President Samia Suluhu Hassan launched the campaign, to the end of October, officials added.
