PAYNESVILLE – Liberia has begun administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccines recently donated by the United States Government to people age 18 years and above, and for those who have not taken any COVID-19 vaccines.
The rollout of the J&J attracted a huge turnout at various sites in Monrovia including the Paynesville City Hall where it was officially launched.
The event attracted officials including Foreign Minister Dee Maxwell Kemayah, Health Minister, Dr. Wilhelmina Jallah and newly arrived United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director Jim Wright and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Country Director Dr. Rachel Idowu, among others.
The Risk Communications Manager of the Incident Management System (IMS), Chester Smith told Liberia Public Radio that the IMS and the Montserrado County Health Team, have set up 40 health facilities across Montserrado the most populated county in Liberia, 10 temporary sites including the Monrovia City Hall, Paynesville City Hall, Barnersville Town Hall, GSA Compound, and Farmington Hotel in Margibi County to administer the vaccines.
The IMS has also designated 20 market sites for J&J vaccination including the Waterside Market, Red Light General Market, Goba-chop, Jacob Town Market, Redemption Day- amongst others.
All persons 18 years and above are eligible for the J&J COVID-19 Vaccines, including Pregnant or breastfeeding mothers, people with medical conditions (high blood pressure, diabetes, HIV, etc.).
On top of the massive rollout in the coming weeks, the government is targeting a little over 2 million people to reach the herd immunity threshold.
The World Health Organization defines ‘Herd immunity’, also known as ‘population immunity’, as the indirect protection from an infectious disease that happens when a population is immune either through vaccination or immunity developed through the previous infection.
“As a country, we are targeting a little over two million people. We have hundreds of Liberians signing up for the vaccines. We are doing community engagements; we have now certified 40 facilities and will also be using 20 markets sites,” he said.
He said the rollout is happening at a time the country’s COVID-19 cases have dropped significantly. “Liberia has drop the active cases to 54, and that is a tremendous effort. We want to maintain this.”
Also speaking, the Deputy Program Manager of the Expanded Program on Immunization at the Ministry of Health, Nicholas N. C. Blidi said the rollout is a big jump in the fight against COVID.
Mr. Blidi said building on the experience from AstraZeneca, the Ministry of Health, in addition to the designating sites for the J&J vaccines, will also dispatch its mobile team at various ministries and agencies to boost the exercise.
On July 25, 302,400 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccines from the United States via COVAX arrived in Liberia.
According to a statement on the U.S. Embassy website, the donation is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s global efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Embassy, in the statement, noted that the U.S. Government coordinated closely with the African Union and Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to make the donation possible.
USAID Mission Director Wright applauded the Ministry of Health’s efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in Liberia, especially its commitment to vaccinating the Liberian people: “The decision to send the vaccines to Liberia was due in no small measure to Liberia’s successful handling of the first tranche of vaccines.”
So far, more than 80,000 people in Liberia have been vaccinated since the country received its first 96,000 doses of AstraZeneca early this year.
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