Ministry Of Health Starts Fresh Nationwide Covid-19 Vaccination Campaign

By Ramatoulie Jawo

The Ministry of Health in collaboration with partners has today commenced a fresh nationwide round Covid-19 vaccination campaign.

The nationwide campaign targeting 70% of the population would run until 20^th August 2022, in all regional towns across the country with permanent teams stationed at hospitals (EPI facilities).

The campaign is in fulfillment of the Gambia government’s vision of scaling up the vaccination coverage to 70% of the population by 31^st December 2022.

Speaking at the event, Sidat Fofana, programme manager, Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) said the government and partners invested a lot of funds to see the population is vaccinated.

“The government is trying their best to fight Covid-19. That is why they are encouraging the population to be vaccinated. The vaccination is the only tool we can use to get rid of this virus, so that we can save our lives, and our family members; especially the old ones,” he said.

Mr Fofana further appealed to the public to take the vaccines so that they can protect the nation.

Sanjally Trawally, Deputy Director, Directorate of Health Promotion and Education, Ministry of Health said Covid-19 is still around and it will be very difficult to fight it without the vaccines.

“We all need to get vaccinated to break the cycle of transmission. The vaccines are safe and effective and are available. I encourage people to get vaccinated, so that we can live our lives as we used to,” he encouraged.

Mamading Kinteh, senior vaccination officer, Ministry of Health explained the efforts by the ministry in ensuring that the population is safe from covid-19.

“In doing that (ensuring that the population is safe from covid-19), one of the key strategies we do towards the fight against Covid-19 is the vaccination; and as a country we have gone too far into the Covid-19 vaccination. But still, there is room for improvement,” she said.

Aja Kandeh, communication officer at EPI said the national coverage of the vaccination is at 18.5% and they want to reach the 70% target by the end of this year.

“We need a lot of effort so that we can reach the targeted number because the gap in between is too much. But we can make it, if we get support from the general public,” she said.