Tanzania has vaccinated a total of 207,391 people against COVID-19 in the first ten days of rollout, with men leading the way as the government cautions against vaccine hesitancy. Presenting the status of the countrywide COVID-19 vaccination rollout on Sunday, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Prof. Abel Makubi (pictured), said by August 14, this year the number of vaccinated people was 207,391 involving 121,002 men (58,3 percent) and 86,389 women (41,7 percent).
With vaccine hesitancy apparently a problem across the world, the Government has issued a new directive to health staff to educate individuals arriving at health facilities in the country on the importance of the vaccine. "When attending patients in the various health facilities, health staff should make time to educate patients on the importance of COVID-19 vaccines to give the ample knowledge and wide room to make informed decisions while taking the jabs," said Prof. Makubi.
He, also, directed the health staff not to deny any citizen who has arrived at the vaccination centres the right to be inoculated. Prof. Makubi called for more efforts to fast-track vaccination rollout in the outskirts of cities and villages across the country for more willing people to receive the COVID-19 jabs. He urged the public to continue taking all the necessary precautions against spread of the COVID- 19 pandemic, including health measures such as washing hands with running water or using hand sanitizers and wearing face-masks.
Other measures include observing social distancing, embarking on regular exercising as well as eating nutritious food. Last week, the Government announced the decision to expand the vaccination scope to cover other people from the age of 18 year-old who are in need of the service regardless of the priority groups. The Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Dr. Dorothy Gwajima said following a huge turnout of people, the ministry has expanded vaccination scope to cover other people in need of the service regardless of the priority groups.
She said some people who go for COVID-19 vaccination at the designated health facilities have been denied the service because they are not under priority groups but after the Government got the vaccination schedule it has allowed other people to be vaccinated. The move comes as Tanzania expects to receive another consignment of COVID-19 vaccines this month through the COVAX facility. Last month, Tanzania received the first batch of 1,058, 400 Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines donated by the United States government through the Covax arrangement, as the country plans to inoculate around 34 million of the population.
As of August 4th this year, a total of 1,008,400 doses of the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccines had been distributed at all 550 centres across the country. On July 28th, this year, President Samia Suluhu Hassan led Tanzanians in taking the shot, paving way for the nationwide COVID-19 vaccine rollout. As part of awareness campaign among member of the public, Tanzania Medical Devices Authority (TMDA), Acting Director of Medical Products Control, Dr. Yonah Mwalwisi allayed fear on safety of the COVID-19 vaccines since the agency is well acquainted with their development. He explained that when vaccines are listed for emergency use by the World Health Organisation (WHO), TMDA participates in their assessment.