The Democratic Republic of Congo has chosen the AstraZeneca vaccine to stop the development of the disease. However, the vaccination campaign is about to slow down. The country is far from the original goals. Following the delay recorded in the deployment program and mistrust of the population, a large proportion of the doses acquired were redistributed to other countries thanks to the Covax initiative. Today, the Congolese authorities fear that much of the remaining amount will expire without being used.
as reported from Kinshasa, Patient Ligodi
More than 1.7 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, sent through Covax, arrived in Kinshasa on March 2, 2021.
The original deployment plan could not be activated in time and vaccination did not start until April 19 and targeted the four provinces most affected by the pandemic: Kinshasa, Sud-Kivu, North Kivu, Haut-Katanga and Congo Central.
Today, less than 16,000 people have been vaccinated, including many foreigners. The situation is particularly worrying that these doses expire in June.
Of the available 1.7 million doses, 1.2 million were rapidly distributed to some African countries such as Togo and Ghana. In the Congolese stocks, according to government sources, there are only about 400,000 doses left to use before the expiration date.
In the face of this real headache, the authorities are trying everything to avoid touching. New vaccination centers are set up. Today, this vaccination is open to almost everyone. The authorities also plan to launch a new communication campaign.
Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, more than 30,000 cases have been confirmed, including 779 deaths.
We work a lot with companies. Because when a company comes to meet us, we can vaccinate hundreds of people at a time.
Lubumbashi Diamond Hospital receives an average of 150 vaccine candidates per day
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