-But medics say much still needs to be done to hit 5 million target
Dr. Manaouda Malachie, the Minister of Public Health has disclosed that over 20 000 Cameroonians have already been vaccinated in the nationwide campaign to inoculate at least 5 million citizens (20% of the population) that government targets in less than two weeks.
The health boss made the revelation in a tweet 1 May 2021 as workers nationwide commemorated the 2021 International Labour Day.
“As of 29 April 2021, Cameroon after two weeks of vaccination has recorded 20,010 people vaccinated,” revealed Manaouda in the tweet.
He further stated: “this progress may be satisfactory, yet the government is encouraging that more people be vaccinated, as part of collective protection. Let’s protect ourselves, let’s get vaccinated”.
The minister in another tweet same day, wishing health workers happy labour day celebration hailed their indispensable commitment in the preservation of lives of Cameroonians even in difficult work conditions.
“We shall continue to find solutions to improve your living conditions within the framework of a hospital with a human face prescribed by the Head of State,” Manaouda stated.
Cameroon launched vaccination 12 April on Health Minister and other officials. The exercise was then progressively launched across all ten regions with most authorities leading by example.
“From the first day, we vaccinated just over 600 persons, but by the second week, that’s last week, we were able to vaccinate over 1500 persons a day, and as of today we are able to vaccinate averagely over 3000 persons a day,” explained Dr. Njoh Andreas, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Expanded Program on Immunization on CRTV.
The medic noted that the number of vaccinated cases daily is still low. This he said requires more efforts to be done in order to hit the 5 million target.
“If we have to hit our target, we need to vaccinate at least 10,000 persons a day. So a lot still has to be done to mobilize the population, and get the vaccines available in every health district”.
The minister had as at 29 April during the cabinet meeting for the month of April disclosed that the epidemiological situation of the pandemic in Cameroon was stable leading to a reduction in the number of infected cases and deaths.
He revealed that the ORCA specialised COVID-19 treatment centre in Yaounde which hitherto hosted between 250 -260 patients now has just 53 patients.
He revealed that Cameroon counts 72,250, 1,107 deaths with a 1.5% mortality rate, while 64,572 have effective recovered from the virus. He said there exists some 3,518 active cases amongst which are 304 in hospitals and 89 patients on oxygen.
By Doh Bertrand Nua in Yaounde
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