COVID-19 : Cameroon vaccinates over 20,000 persons in two weeks
Cameroon’s Public Health Minister, Dr. Manaouda Malachie has said 20,010 persons have been administered the vaccine against the deadly COVID-19 disease.
In a recent tweet, the Public Health boss states, “As of 29 April 2021, Cameroon after two weeks of vaccination has recorded 20,010 people vaccinated. This progress may be satisfactory, yet the government is encouraging that more people be vaccinated, as part of collective protection. Let’s protect ourselves, let’s get vaccinated”.
The vaccination campaign was launched in Cameroon on April 12 with a target to vaccinate 5 million people, representing 20% of the country’s population.
China’s Sinopharm and British AstraZeneCa, are two vaccines administered in the country.
Active immunization in the 10 Regions
The vaccination exercise began in the Centre Region before proceeding to the Littoral, Far North, North West and South West Regions. All 10 regions are currently administering the vaccines.
Staff from the country’s 190 health districts have been trained on vaccination against COVID-19. Most of these districts alongside 243 vaccination centres set up nationwide, are actively rolling out the vaccines .
Dr. Njoh Andreas, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Expanded Program on Immunization says there is an upward trend in the number of persons getting the vaccines.
“From the first day, we vaccinated just over 600 persons, but by the second week, that’s last week, we were able to vaccinate over 1500 persons a day, and as of today we are able to vaccinate averagely over 3000 persons a day”. He explains
Still far from target
According to Dr. Njoh Andreas, the number of persons vaccinated a day is still low, and far from target.
“If we have to hit our target, we need to vaccinate at least 10,000 persons a day. So a lot still has to be done to mobilize the population, and get the vaccines available in every health district”.
He adds that although the population is gradually embracing the vaccines, there is more need to improve communication in order to get more persons aware of why they need to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
As the vaccination exercise unfolds, the Public Health Minister, Dr. Manaouda Malachie, says there are currently 72,250 confirmed cases, 67,625 recoveries, 3518 active cases and 1107 deaths on record.
Kathy Neba Sina