Cote d’Ivoire has received a first contingent of 108,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine out of 7.8 million ordered by the country.
The Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Diaspora and Integration, Kandia Camara, her colleague in Health, of public hygiene and universal health coverage, Pierre Dimba, and representatives of financial and technical partners, received this batch of vaccines at Félix Houphouët-Boigny airport in Abidjan.
“I am therefore really happy to receive, in addition to the vaccines that we received last week, 108,000 doses and that brings to 2.555 million doses that we receive in Côte d’Ivoire”, declared the Minister of Health, Mr. Pierre Dimba.
Cote d’Ivoire according to the health minister has received the first batch of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was purchased by the Ivorian State with funding from the World Bank, thanks to an initiative of the Union African, accompanied by Afreximbank.
Mr. Pierre Dimba observed that on the international market, there is enormous tension, but the leadership of President Alassane Ouattara has made it possible, through the AU and the pan-African bank, to order 7.8 million doses, of which 3.5 million doses that should be sent to Cote d’Ivoire by December.
Mr. Pierre Dimba also stated that the World Health Organization is providing technical support to Côte d’Ivoire, as for UNICEF, it will help the Ivorian State to deploy the vaccine with a view to vaccinating populations throughout the national territory.
“The specificity of this vaccine is that it is a one-dose vaccine,” noted Mr. Dimba, indicating that the State intends to deploy it in remote areas for teachers, doctors so that they can be available to attend to their duties and responsibilities.
In recent weeks, there has been a rise in cases of contamination in the country with deaths according to statistics published by the government of Cote d’Ivoire through its health ministry.
“In Africa, the number of vaccinated does not exceed 2%, but thanks to these vaccines the continent tends to 6 to 7% for Côte d’Ivoire and our goal is to reach more than 60% of the vaccination” minister Pierre Dimba noted .
The Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Diaspora and Integration, Kandia Camara praised “the good cooperation between Côte d’Ivoire and all of its partners”.
Mr. Gaston Sorgho, Sector Director West and Central Africa of the World Bank, in charge of health, nutrition and population, said that this initiative, which represents “approximately 3.5 million dollars”, is “a first step”.
The AU, by supporting this initiative, wants the continent to achieve 60% immunization coverage. For Mr. Sorghum, Africa must go beyond the 20% initially targeted.
In this momentum, Mr. Gaston Sorgho indicated that this is why the AU has mobilized a bank on the continent as a support structure that gave the guarantee to allow negotiations with suppliers.
Côte d’Ivoire has recorded a significant wave of people infected with Covid-19 in recent weeks, the country recorded this Thursday, September 2, 2021, 373 new cases of Covid-19 out of 4,460 samples taken, i.e. 8.4% of positive cases, 152 cured and 6 deaths.
As of September 2, 2021, Côte d’Ivoire has 56,521 confirmed cases including 54,154 people cured, 451 deaths and 1,916 active cases. On September 1, 17,829 vaccine doses were administered for 1,387,952 doses from March 1 to September 1, 2021.
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