MAPUTO, Mozambique
The Mozambican health authorities are awaiting official notification of the donation of vaccines against Covid-19 announced on Monday by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
“South Africa has not yet
contacted us. It is a new thing, we do not know [officially] about this
donation,” the deputy public health director Benigna Matsinhe told Lusa News
Agency on Tuesday, adding that there will be developments in the coming days.
South African President Cyril
Ramaphosa on Monday said that Mozambique would receive vaccines against the new
coronavirus as part of a donation from the South African telecommunications
operator MTN to countries in the region.
“MTN, which is one of our
companies operating in several African countries, has donated $25 million
[€20.7 million] to acquire seven million doses of the vaccine against Covid-19
that will be made available to several African countries in the coming weeks,”
Ramaphosa said in a statement to the country regarding the arrival of the first
batch of vaccines in South Africa.
Apart from Mozambique, the
donation would also cover other neighbouring countries, namely Lesotho,
Eswatini, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
The South African head of state
did not specify the number of doses or the type of vaccine against Covid-19
that the operator will donate.
The Mozambican authorities are
waiting for more information. In the meantime, they have a plan for the
purchase of vaccines: we have made the proposals and are waiting for the
answers, Benigna Matsinhe stressed.
In his latest projections,
Mozambique’s health minister, Armindo Tiago, expressed his intention to bring
forward to February or March the date of arrival of vaccines in the country,
after having indicated July as the starting month for inoculation in
Mozambique, under the international Covax mechanism.
The initiative, launched by the
World Health Organization (WHO), plans to distribute at least two billion doses
by the end of 2021 to immunize 20% of the most vulnerable people in 91
developing countries, mainly in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
South Africa, by far the country
most affected by the pandemic on the continent, on Monday received the first
batch of one million doses of a vaccine against covid-19 produced in India.
According to the head of state, the second batch of 500,000 doses produced in India
is expected next month, who announced a further 30 million doses of the vaccine
against Covid-19 for the second quarter.
According to data provided by the
Ministry of Health, Mozambique recorded more cases, more hospitalizations and
more deaths from Covid-19 in January alone than in the whole of 2020.
Since the announcement of the
first case, the country has registered 386 deaths and 39,460 cases of infection
by the new coronavirus, of which 62% have recovered.
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