Security officers in Kumba, Chief Town of Meme Division in the South West region have launched investigations to track down authors of COVID-19 vaccination rumours that caused panic and a stampede in a school campus in the town recently.
The panic left three students injured as they jumped from a storey building. The three students are said to be responding to treatment on the expense of government at the Kumba District Hospital.
A release issued by Meme SDO, Chamberlin Ntou’ou Ndong qualified information related to COVID-19 vaccination in his area of command as “fake news”.
He vehemently condemned the act and promised the authors of the rumour will be tracked and punished. He called on parents to be calm and assured the population that no vaccination has been authorized by government to be administered on students or pupils.
The rumour is said to have spread when a woman, after spotting some health workers clad in UNICEF jackets around the campus of Government Practicing School Kumba rushed to the school to withdraw her kids, reportedly thinking they were on campus to vaccinate children for COVID-19.
Other parents are said to have stormed schools demanding withdrawal of their kids from school thirty minutes after. The situation is said to have degenerated into other schools were parents rushed to take their children with others running for their life.
The development from Kumba forced Public Health Minister Manaouda Malachie to in a tweet indicate that vaccines have not been forced on any citizen. He revealed when the vaccines are eventually available, citizens will choose whether to take it or not.
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