Friday February 5, 2021
South Africa took part in human trials for vaccines but has not yet started vaccinating people/ REUTERS
Mogadishu (HOL) - The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday that Somalia is expecting to receive 1.2 million doses of the Oxford-developed Astrazaneca in February, according to a top WHO representative in the country
Dr. Sk Md Mamunur Rahman Malik, Head of Mission and WHO Representative for Somalia, confirmed with the VOA Somali Service that half of the dose would go to Somalia's 600,000 frontline health care workers. Dr. Malik added more doses are expected in the coming months. The WHO hopes to vaccinate one-fifth of Somalia's total population this year.
The announcement was welcomed by Fawziya Abikar Nur, Somalia's health minister, who said that the doses would prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the country.
"We are grateful to our partners, the EU and WHO, who are supporting us to reduce the burden and effects of deadly and communicable diseases, save lives of our community members and make our health systems stronger and more effective."
While the COVAX initiative will give the first round of vaccines to Somalia for free, Somalia is expected to purchase enough doses to vaccinate 80% of its population.
The EU announced that it would be providing $6 million over three years to support WHO-led projects.
Several other East African nations are also expecting the vaccine. Kenya is expecting 4,176,000 doses, Uganda receives 3,552,000 doses, Rwanda will receive 996,000 doses, while Sudan is set to receive 3,396,000 doses compared to 864,000 to be distributed to South Sudan. Ethiopia will receive the largest amount of doses, nearly nine million, according to the WHO Emergency Use Listing Procedure.
In total, the global VCOVAX initiative expects to supply up to 600 million doses by the end of 2021 to low-income countries.
Africa has recorded about 3.6 million cases and 93,000 deaths from COVID-19.