DODOMA,
Tanzania
Tanzania government is pondering local manufacturing of Covid-19 vaccines in an attempt to reduce importation costs.
Health
Permanent Secretary, Abel Makubi said in Dodoma on Sunday that the factory
would manufacture vaccines for Covid-19 and other diseases.
“We have a
lot of experts. We will make it. We will not only produce Covid-19 vaccines but
also those [vaccines] for other diseases so that even when the pandemic ends,
Tanzania will still have the capacity of producing such medicines locally.” Said
Makubi.
The Secretary
said the government had no intention of selling vaccines to the public. It
would neither allow anyone to import them against procedures.
On May 17,
2021 President Samia Hassan received a report by a special committee of experts
that she formed in April to professionally evaluate the Covid-19 pandemic
situation in the country.
Among
other things, the team, chaired by Said Aboud, recommended that the government
should allow voluntary vaccination and resume releasing statistics related to
the pandemic.
And on
June 4, the committee formed to advise the government on the way forward
regarding the management of the pandemic, handed another report detailing how
Tanzania can mobilize resources to control Covid-19 as well as the proposals
for the vaccination strategy.
Speaking
on Monday June 28, 2021 in Dar es Salaam during her maiden press conference in
the capacity of head of state, President Hassan said the government will spend
at least $470 million on its fight against the pandemic.
While half
of the money will be spent on buying protective equipment and medicines, the
remaining half will be spent on bailing out sectors that had been severely
affected by Covid-19.
She said Tanzania had registered for WHO-backed COVAX facility and that it will administer Covid-19 vaccine in the near future.
No comments:
Post a Comment