Namibia receives Covid-19 vaccine from China
The southern African country received its first consignment of 100,000 doses of the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine from China on Tuesday.
RUSTENBURG, March 17 (ANA) – Namibia will start its Covid-19 vaccination roll out on Friday, local media reported, citing Health Minister Dr Kalumbi Shangula.
The southern African country received its first consignment of 100,000 doses of the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine from China on Tuesday.
Daily newspaper New Era reported that phase one of the roll out programme would start on March 19 until April 16 in the Khomas and Erongo regions.
It quoted Shangula as saying people with co-morbidities, those older than 60 years old, as well as pregnant and lactating women would be excluded from the Sinopharm vaccine roll-out while authorities obtained more information.
According to another daily, The Namibian, Shangula said the Khomas and Erongo areas would form part of the first phase of the Covid-19 vaccination plan, with roughly 45,000 people to be inoculated.
He said the vaccine would be administered under the health ministry’s existing expanded programme on immunisation.
Namibia has so far recorded 41,466 Covid-19 cases, with 474 people subsequently dying while 38,793 recovered.
It is the second southern African country to receive a donation of the Sinopharm vaccine from China after Zimbabwe.
Botswana and Eswatini received donations of the Covishield vaccine from India last week while Malawi is using the AstraZeneca vaccine and South Africa uses the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
South Africa abandoned the AstraZeneca drug after clinical trials showed the doses were ineffective against the new 501.V2 variant strain of Covid-19 detected in the country.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe on Tuesday received a second consignment of 200,000 Sinopharm doses donated by China and 200,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine purchased from the Asian country.
– African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Stella Mapenzauswa