GOVT REVIEWS COVID-19 VACCINE ROLLOUT PLAN

MBABANE- Reviewed and approved!

This is the country’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout plan, which has been approved by COVAX facility after being reviewed by government and stakeholders.

This was revealed by the Ministry of Health Chief Pharmacist, Fortunate Bhembe, yesterday during an interview on COVID-19 vaccines in Eswatini TV’s Kusile Breakfast Show.

COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access, abbreviated as COVAX, is a global initiative aimed at equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines led by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI, referred to as Gavi), the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and others.

Eswatini is one of the 92 countries that are beneficiaries of COVAX.

Bhembe said the COVID-19 vaccine was approved by the said facility on February 9, 2021.

The reviewed rollout plan is different from the first one that the Ministry of Health announced over a month ago. In the former rollout plan, the only people in Phase I were healthcare workers whereas in Phase II, there are healthcare workers, the elderly and people living with comorbidities.

The chief pharmacist said it was a requirement for each country to submit the ‘National Vaccination Deployment Plan’ to COVAX before vaccines were given.

“We liaised with the Afro office of the WHO to submit our plan. It was approved as a great rollout plan by COVAX on February 9. They then promised to deliver vaccines in the country between the last week of February and the early week of March,” said Bhembe.

She said there was no ambiguity in the manner in which people would be vaccinated, saying the plan was crystal clear.

“Healthcare workers are at a high danger (in contracting the virus) because everyone who is sick goes to them, so they will be first in line. The elderly is another group that is at high risk because their immune systems are weak and can hardly fight the virus.

“People with underlying illnesses, who have chronic illnesses like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and others, are also at high risk. Also, obese people fall in this criteria, they will be in the first phase,” said Bhembe.

She next phase will be the workforce, including teachers and police.

“Thereafter, in Phase III, we will then vaccinate everyone who is above 18 years of age. Worth noting is that so far, we will not be vaccinating people under 18 years because no clinical trials have been done on people in their age group with regards to COVID-19 vaccines,” she said.

Early last week, Director of Health Services Dr Vusi Magagula revealed that 20 000 doses of Oxford AstraZeneca had been commission from India, where they were being manufactured. When asked about the arrival of the commission vaccines in the country, Dr Magagula said there was nothing to report.

Also, the Ministry of Health sent samples to South Africa to test for COVID-19 variant sequencing and to date, the results have not been released. Dr Magagula said there was nothing to report when asked about feedback on the results.

The first jab is expected to be administered as soon as the vaccines is received in the kingdom.

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