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| Covid-19 pandemic Vaccine |
As the world is shading tears day and night due to several deaths as a result of COVID-19, many countries are busy acquiring and making purchases of the Convid-19 vaccines.
This is a different case with Tanzania and Burundi countries located in Eastern Africa.
Tanzania and Burundi are excluded from the African countries set to receive COVID-19 vaccine, media reports said Friday, after the World Health Organization (WHO) announced plans for the vaccine rollout.
About 320,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have been allocated to four African countries, including Rwanda, Cabo Verde, South Africa and Tunisia, the Director for WHO said in a statement.
The rollout of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine is subject to the listing of the vaccine for emergency use by the UN agency.
However, earlier this week, Tanzania indicated it had no plans to accept COVID-19 vaccines after President John Magufuli expressed reservations about them.
Magufuli declared that COVID-19 has been defeated in his country Tanzania attributing it to God’s help, despite the WHO urged cooperation from the government.
The health minister of Burundi, a landlocked country in East Africa which neighbors with Tanzania, said his country was more concerned with prevention measures, according to the National Radio Station.
“Since more than 95% of patients are recovering, we estimate that the vaccines are not yet necessary,” local media reported, quoting Health Minister Thaddee Ndikumana as saying.
Burundi’s land and water borders remain closed. The county has registered more than 1,600 confirmed coronavirus cases.
Some 60% vaccination is needed to achieve herd immunity in Africa’s 54 countries, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases on the continent reached 3.6 million as of Friday, while the death toll stood at 93,647, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Currently, more people are dying in Tanzania due to the Pandemic. The Right Honourable first Vice President of Zanzibar which a part of Tanzania is admitted at the hospital including his wife.
The public is yet to hear from the government whether it will accept the reality of the Pandemic now or not.
Despite the government not enforcing by the measures, the major shopping malls, Hotels, Public and private offices are observing Social distancing, putting on face masks. No body is being allowed to enter into the shops without following Covid-19 pandemic preventive measures.
