US EMBASSY EMPLOYEES VACCINATED

MBABANE – About 90 employees at the United States of America (USA) Embassy have been vaccinated for COVID-19.

The employees were vaccinated late last month using the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine as confirmed by US Embassy Spokesperson Stephanie Sandoval. Worth noting is that Pfizer Inc., the company that manufactures the vaccine, is an American multinational pharmaceutical corporation and it has manufacturing sites in Saint Louis, Missouri, Kalamazoo, Michigan, Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, Puurs, Belgium among others. Responding to a questionnaire sent to the embassy on the rollout of the vaccine to the employees, Sandoval said the Department of State was engaged in the deployment of vaccines to personnel around the world and this allowed the Department to advance US national security interests and ensure America’s essential diplomacy continued unimpeded.

Promoting

“Protecting and promoting the health, safety and security of the department’s workforce is our priority so that we can continue to carry out our mission on behalf of the American people. Employees of the US Embassy in Eswatini who chose to receive the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine have been offered this opportunity,” she responded.  The rollout of the vaccine for the US Embassy employees comes at a time when the country is still waiting to receive its first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Acting Prime Minister Themba Masuku, when giving an update on the arrival of the vaccine in the country through a report tabled in Parliament on Monday, stated that government was expecting delivery of some COVID-19 vaccines before the end of the week. He said a vaccination plan had been completed and was ready for execution and that they needed to ensure that the vaccination of healthcare workers would have begun within the next two weeks.

Sandoval, in her response to this publication, stated that combating this virus required collective commitment and effort, and any increased immunity would help limit the spread in Eswatini. “We are proud to be doing everything we possibly can to contribute to the health and well-being of our staff and the community,” she said.  Also incorporated in the response was that since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the US had provided $5.87 million (E90.12 million) in emergency assistance to Eswatini.  “We continue to work closely with the Government of Eswatini to respond to COVID-19, for example, by addressing Eswatini’s medical oxygen shortage, better equipping healthcare workers to respond to the health crisis and supporting national vaccine implementation.“COVID-19 has shown that no nation can act alone in the face of a pandemic.  Last month, President Biden announced that the US will be contributing up to $4 billion (E58.5 billion) to COVAX to support the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.  Eswatini will be a direct beneficiary of this support,’’ added Sandoval.

Received

SADC countries were offered over 8.6 million COVID-19 doses courtesy of the COVAX Facility and Eswatini, Comoros and Mauritius were among those that would receive the least. The COVAX Facility stated that countries would receive doses in proportion to their population size. These doses are expected to reach about 3.3 per cent of the total population of the 145 facility participants during this timeframe. Vaccines are expected to go to the most vulnerable populations, including healthcare workers. Mauritius received the least number of doses, which stood at 100 800 and both Eswatini and Comoros would receive 108 000. South Africa, which has the largest population in the region, received 2 976 000 doses followed by Mozambique which received 2 424 000. The COVAX Facility will also distribute 1.2 million of the 40 million expected doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the first quarter of this year.

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