WINDHOEK, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Namibia's Health Minister Kalumbi Shangula on Friday said the country is poised to roll out phase 2 of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign on April 19.
This follows the delivery of 24,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines, bought by the government through the COVAX facility, in Windhoek Friday.
This is the first of more consignments that will be delivered in the coming months, not only from the COVAX facility but potentially from other manufacturers and suppliers, said Shangula, calling on all eligible Namibians to make themselves available for vaccination so that they can break the backbone of the pandemic in the country and return Namibia to normalcy.
"We must remain mindful of the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic is still with us. It is causing both severe illness and loss of lives. The statistics and data gathered as part of our national response show that we are still not out of the woods," he said.
Shangula also said the arrival of this vaccine in the country will go a long way to strengthen the COVID-19 response and preparedness in the country.
Having launched phase 1 of our vaccination campaign on March 19, with the Sinopharm vaccine donated by China and the addition of AstraZeneca, we will have our efforts boosted to reach herd immunity, said the official, urging eligible persons to get vaccinated.
Namibia's cumulative confirmed cases had been 46,185 by Thursday, with 44,322 recoveries and 596 deaths.
A total of 3,587 vaccine doses have been administered since the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination in March, according to the data provided by the Ministry of Health and Social Services. Enditem
