Minister of Health
By Buba Gagigo
Dr. Ahmadou Lamin Samateh, The Gambia’s Minister of Health has called on Gambians to make themselves available for vaccination with the COVAX vaccine the country received recently.
“I want to take this opportunity to call on every Gambian especially those regarded as high risk group to help protect themselves, their families, and the entire population of Gambia from this dangerous disease; by making themselves available for vaccination.”
Dr Samateh advised Gambians not to listen to the people spreading false information about the vaccine.
“We must close our ears to those few elements among us spreading false information about covid-19 vaccine and dissuading people from taking the vaccine.”
The establishment of the COVAX facility by Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization (Gavi); World Health Organization (WHO) and Committee for Epidemic Preparedness Initiative (CEPI), is to help mobilise and pool resources to enable lower and middle income countries have access to high quality vaccine which was seen to be the only intervention that can bring the Coronavirus pandemic under control.
The Covax will provide vaccine for 20% of The Gambia’s population through the COVAX facility. This allocation will be able to vaccinate all aged 41 years and above, including priority groups summing up to 487,41 people based on projected population.
The arrival of the 36, 000 doses of Covid vaccine on Tuesday is timely, as cases continue to surge in The Gambia. Currently the country has a total of 151 deaths; 4, 735 confirmed cases; 4, 111 recoveries and 473 active cases. The 272nd national situation report covering covering 27th to 28th February 2021 indicated.