Ethiopia launched its COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Addis Ababa on Saturday with the country’s health workers being the first to be inoculated in the first phase of the vaccine drive, reported Africa News. The country received its first 2.2 million doses of vaccine against the coronavirus last week.
The doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, were allocated under the UN-led Covax initiative which is working to facilitate vaccine access for poorer countries.
The vaccination campaign launch was attended by the World Health Organization’s country representative Boureima Hama Sambo who urged communities and community leaders to build trust in the vaccine and to promptly address misinformation.
The next shipments of 5.4 million doses as part of the current global deployment plan are likely to arrive in the country by May 2021.
Ethiopia plans to vaccinate 20% of its roughly 110 million people against coronavirus by 2021.
Ethiopia has over 172,571 cases of the coronavirus and 2,510 reported deaths, the fifth-highest total in Africa and the highest in East Africa, according to data compiled by the Johns Hopkins University.
Ethiopia’s neighboring country Djibouti also received its first AstraZeneca vaccine shipment via Covax this weekend, the World Health Organization announced on Saturday. It said that the first shipment of vaccines will aim at vaccinating health care workers, people over 50 years of age, and people with comorbidities.
Last week, the WHO official said the Covid-19 vaccine rollout in Africa has accelerated as the continent’s caseload hit nearly 4 million.
Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s Regional Director for Africa, said that the arrival of additional vaccine doses will boost efforts to contain the pandemic in the continent.
According to the WHO, over 14.6 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have already been delivered to 22 African countries since February 24 under the COVAX facility.
