Tanzania’s Minister for Health Ummy Mwalimu has instructed the chief medical officer to be releasing Covid-19 data on a weekly basis.
The Health minister said this, besides vaccination, will be part of the government’s efforts in fighting the pandemic by raising awareness.
“Covid-19 is still in Tanzania, and we hope that through the data that we are going to release weekly, people will see the real picture and know how important it is to protect themselves and maybe consider vaccination,” she said.
On Wednesday, the government received 800,000 doses of the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine from China. These will be administered on 400,000 people, each getting two doses.
This was the second batch of vaccine donation from China.
In November 2021, Tanzania received 576,558 Covid-19 vaccine doses provided through the Covax facility.
First batch rolled out
According to the minister, all dosage in the first batch has been rolled out to the public.
“This donation brings the total of vaccines that have been supplied to Tanzania to 8,821,210 doses, including those of Jansen, Moderna and Pfizer which is enough to vaccinate 5,082,380 people,”
But by January 25, 2022 only 1.9 million people had been vaccinated in Tanzania, translating to 3.33 per cent.
Ms Mwalimu said the government will make sure that Covid-19 is dealt with but added that this can only be achieved through successful vaccination, with experts calling for least 60 per cent of the population to get vaccinated and observe other preventive measures against the pandemic.
On her part the Chinese ambassador to Tanzania, Chen Mingjian, said the donation of the 800,000 vaccine doses was to support the country to fight the pandemic.
“Due to the long good friendship from our forefathers, China is ready to provide more support to Tanzania in the fight against the pandemic,” said Ms Mingjian. BY DAILY NATION