More Covid-19 vaccines roll in
By ADRIAN MWANZA
THE Ministry of Health will tomorrow receive a consignment of 129, 600 doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccine in line with the approved Covid-19 vaccine programme.
Government approved the procurement of 4, 400, 000 of Johnson and Johnson vaccine through the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT), an initiative under the African Union.
Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary for Technical Services Dr Kennedy Malama said this was part of continued efforts to build the vaccine stockpile in the country.
Dr Malama said despite the Covid-19 levels being low, the ministry warned that the pandemic continued to evolve the world over, and with the continued spread of mutating variants such as the B.1.6.2.1 and now C.1.2 we were at risk as a country of importing the mutated variants.
He said that the ministry had prioritised the genomic sequencing for robust surveillance to be able to rapidly detect the presence of these variants among our people for action.
He said with the improved Covid-19 status in the country, they had also taken the opportunity to ramp up scientific investigations and local research at provincial, district and national levels that would be crucial to document the response efforts and the many lessons learnt that would continue to inform decision-making.
“We continue to implement vaccinations across the country, using three different approved vaccines currently, and today we report 3, 163 doses of Johnson and Johnson, 79 doses of Sinopharm as well as 68 Dose 1 and 237 Dose 2 AstraZeneca vaccine doses administered,” he said.
Dr Malama said the cumulative number of vaccine doses utilised to date to were 596, 410 doses at 61 percent.
Meanwhile, the country for the sixth consecutive day, recorded three new Covid-19 related deaths, from Central, Eastern and Lusaka provinces.
The three deaths had pushed the cumulative number of Covid-19 related deaths recorded to date stands at 3, 614 classified as 2, 706 Covid-19 deaths and 908 Covid-19 associated deaths.
He said in the last 24 hours, the teams inspected 2, 245 premises of which 1, 963 were compliant while 279 (12 percent were issued with notices of improvement and 12 (0.5 percent) were closed.
Dr Malama said of the 7, 299 tests conducted countrywide, 144 new confirmed Covid-19 cases were recorded representing a two percent overall positivity.
