COVID-19 : 200,000 doses of Chinese Vaccine Sinopharm to arrive Cameroon on April 11
A total of 200,000 doses of the Chinese vaccine , Sinopharm will arrive Cameroon on April 11, in five days , public Health officials have said.
Over 500 vaccination centers that will be involved in administering the vaccines have been identified across the country.
Dr. Shalom NDOULA, Permanent Secretary of the Expanded Program on Immunization says the vaccines will be dispatched to these vaccination centers as soon as they arrive the country.
For Persons at Risk
Health workers across the country have thus intensified preparations for the first phase of the vaccination exercise expected to begin soon .
But the vaccines will not to administered to just anyone. Dr. Shalom NDOULA says “The first vaccination will be just for a small group of people who are at risk, and very exposed especially people with pre-existing health conditions like diabetes, hypertension, who are at high risk of severe forms of COVID”.
Frontline health care givers. teachers, taxi and bus drivers, and motor bike riders are also among the target groups of persons to receive the vaccines.
Authorities say other persons willing to be administered the vaccine will be permitted to do so, after the persons at risks should have been vaccinated.
Why the Chinese Vaccine ?
Shortly after the second wave of the pandemic began in Cameroon, infections spiraled uncontrollably and the National Scientific Council and National Immunization Technical Board approved vaccination to roll back the virus.
Four vaccines were shortlisted ;
-Sputnik V from Russia
-Pfizer vaccine from Europe
-AstraZeneCa from Britain
-Johnson and Johnson from the USA
Then doubts over the side effects of the AstraZeneCa vaccine led to its exclusion from the list of vaccines.
In early March, the Chinese Ambassador to Cameroon, Wang Yingwu had a meeting with the Minister of External Relations, Lejuene Mbella Mbella, during which he announced that his country will offer 200,000 samples of the COVID19 vaccines to Cameroon.
The arrival of the vaccines one month after the announcement was made, is a fulfillment of a promise to support Cameroon extinct the deadly virus.
Kathy Neba Sina