Tanzanian Health Minister Dr. Dorothy Gwajima on Monday announced the government will begin the COVID-19 vaccination campaign on Wednesday, July 28, with President Samia Suluhu Hassan expected to be inoculated on the same day, reported CGTN Africa.
In a statement, Dr. Gwajima said President Samia will start the vaccination campaign on July 28, 9.00 am at State House Dar es Salaam. The ministry will then carry on with the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine doses.
“The Government expects to receive more vaccine doses, to enable all Tanzanians to get the jab,” Dr. Dorothy said.
Last week, Tanzania received its first batch of 1 million Johnson and Johnson coronavirus vaccine doses donated by the United States Government, through the World Health Organization (WHO) led COVAX facility.
Tanzanian Foreign Affairs Minister Liberata Mulamula and the US ambassador to Tanzania, Donald Wright, received the vaccines at the Julius Nyerere International Airport in the country’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam.
Dr. Dorothy had earlier announced that priority groups for the vaccination exercise will be health workers, people aged 50 years and older, and those with chronic health conditions in regions such as DSM, Mwanza, Kilimanjaro, Mbeya, Arusha, Kigoma, Singida, Dodoma, Iringa, and Mtwara.
Notably, former Tanzanian President John Magufuli, who breathed his last in March, had refused to accept vaccines after he claimed that prayers were enough to heal the country of the coronavirus in June 2020. He even ordered the health authorities to stop publishing covid-19 statistics.
After Magufuli’s death, his deputy, Samai Suluhu Hassan, took over as President in line with the country’s constitution and became the first female President in Tanzania. Hassan changed the government’s pandemic management plan and joined COVAX to get free vaccine doses for the people.
She has appealed to the public not to ignore the third wave of COVID-19 and to strictly observe precautionary measures against the pandemic.
