Vaccination against COVID-19: Over 45 000 Vaccinated Against As PM, Other Ministers Receive Second Dose

Public Health Minister Dr. Manaouda Malachie has disclosed that over 45 000 Cameroonians have already been vaccinated against the Coronavirus. He made the revelation at the auditorium of the Prime Ministry on the sidelines of the special voluntary vaccination campaign organized for cabinet ministers. 

“We have today about 45 000 persons who have received the vaccine and we are going to strengthen our communication and explain the objectives vaccine to the population,” Dr. Manaouda said.

Manaouda said special targets will be on the vaccination of health personnel and those above 50 years who have comorbidity as well as special groups including teachers, and security and defense forces. 

“I think we have stabilized the situation until now. We have about 30 deaths and we have around 120 deaths in one week so I think until now we have stabilized the situation,” Manaouda said. 

Aside assurances of a stable epidemiological situation of the pandemic in the country within the last couple of weeks, the minister urged all and sundry to continue respecting all prescribe barrier measures scrupulously.   

PM Joseph Dion Ngute and members of government also used the campaign to complete their second dose of the vaccine. They started the vaccination three weeks ago. They were attended to by four different vaccination teams dispatched from the ministry of Public health. 

Cameroon launched vaccination 12 April 2021 with target to vaccinate at least 5 million citizens (20% of the population). The exercise was then progressively launched across all ten regions with most authorities leading by example. 

As explained by Dr. Njoh Andreas, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Expanded Program on Immunization weeks back, the number of cases vaccinated daily is seemingly low if government needs to hit its 20% vaccination target. 

“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,” he explained, adding, that more effort is needed 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,” he stated. 

By Doh Bertrand Nua