Africa-Press – Tanzania. PRIME Minister Kassim Majaliwa has called for awareness raising campaigns on the importance of Covid-19 vaccines, decrying ongoing misinformation relating to vaccination.
Mr Majaliwa maintained that the Covid-19 vaccines being rolled out across the country were safe and effective, calling upon Tanzanians to continue taking the vaccines.
“People should stop spreading lies, the vaccine is a great weapon against Covid-19…its quite difficult for some to realise on the importance of the jabs unless a member of the family has been hit,” said Mr Majaliwa during a stakeholders meeting of the livestock sector held in Dar es Salaam, yesterday.
The Premier went on revealing that the vaccines were safe, noting that the government had deployed its experts abroad to go and study the safety and effectiveness of the Covid-19 jabs.
According to the Premier, last year when the Covid-19 vaccines had been introduced for the first time, the top government leaders inquired that the country should first be certain about the vaccine before they offered it to the citizens.
He pointed out that some countries which had rolled out vaccination to their citizens have started imposing restrictions to anyone travelling to those countries who have not received the Covid-19 vaccines.
This is why, he said, the country decided to order a few vaccines to cater for the foreign population and other groups including traders and those pursuing studies abroad to get the chance to carry on with their activities.
He, however, noted that previously before the vaccines were being rolled out within the country, a section of the group was seeking the service elsewhere including Zanzibar, Kenya and South Africa.
Mr Majaliwa was saddened with the lies which are going round in relation to the vaccines, noting it does not make sense that the medical experts sent to verify the efficacy of the vaccines would wish to harm their fellow Tanzanians.
“The experts had identified three types of vaccines which they considered safe and can be used in the country.
“President Samia Suluhu Hassan led all Tanzanians in taking the Covid-19 jab, she cannot jeopardize the safety of the citizens, as she swore to protect all of us…let’s build our trust on the President, she has been advised well on the issue,” noted the PM.
PM Majaliwa also observed that Tanzania has continued taking all the necessary precautions against the spread of Covid-19, as well as embark on various awareness campaigns encouraging each and every one to take precautions.
The country’s medical service providers have continued raising awareness on the importance of each and every to take precaution and the need to protect others, so as to contain the spread of the pandemic.
On regular occasions emphasis has been made on the need to wear face masks in all areas of threat, using clean running water and soaps to wash hands as well as using sanitizers.
Medical experts have gone an extra mile to educate the public on eating nutritious meals and regular exercising.
“Let’s all take part in exercises to make our bodies fit…every person’s bodies respond differently, one may decide to walk round the compounds several times, and others may decide to run a certain distance. The bottom line is doing exercise relative to what your body can take in,” he said.
Tanzania received the first batch of 1,058, 400 Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines donated by the United States government through the Covax arrangement on July 24th this year.
On July 28th, this year, President Samia led Tanzanians in taking the shot, before it was dispatched to more than 550 centres in all 26 regions, paving way for the national exercise to follow.
As of August 4th, this year, a total of 1,008,400 doses of the Johnson and Johnson Covid-19 vaccines had been distributed at all 550 centres across the country for roll out to all citizens from the age of 18 year and above.
