By SENIYA BANDA
TECHNICAL experts in the Ministry of Health are deliberating on the issue of whether Zambia should go ahead with the procurement of the booster vaccines following the detection of the new variant.
Health Minister Sylvia Masebo, has explained that the issue of boosters is technical which needed to be handled by experts who will soon give policy recommendations on whether the country goes ahead with the procurement of the boosters.
Ms. Masebo said the government will inform the nation after the decision is made following the policy recommendation from the experts.
She was responding to a question in parliament from Chama South Constituency Member of Parliament Yotham Mtayachalo on whether the government has plans to procure booster vaccines and administer to the citizens.
Meanwhile, Government through the Ministry of Health has procured covid-19 vaccines at the cost of US$40million.
Minister of Health Sylvia Masebo says US$6.4 million has so far been paid to the suppliers of the vaccines.
Ms Masebo said the country had so far received 438,400 doses of the purchased vaccines.
She said the country targets to cover 4.4 million people out of the 8 million eligible population by the end of the year.
Ms Masebo said the country had in stock over 4 million doses of vaccines from various sources including Covax.
The minister said government had allocated K470 million for procurement of Covid-19 vaccines.
Ms Masebo was responding to a question from former Health Minister Chitalu Chilufya who wanted to find out if the country has enough vaccines.
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