The first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines as part of the Covax initiative were received early Wednesday at the Blaise Diagne international airport in Diass, some 60 km from Dakar.
Thanks to the World Health Organization (WHO), Senegal has received a batch of 324,000 doses from AstraZeneca/Oxford.
Last Sunday, the Minister of Health and Social Action, Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr, received the consumables, consisting mainly of syringes and safety boxes. On that day, Irene Mingasson, the European Union (EU) ambassador to Dakar, said that eight million doses are destined for Senegal as part of the Covax initiative.
According to the health authorities, “nearly one million additional doses are already planned for the second quarter of 2021, and others will follow throughout” the year.
In Senegal, the national vaccination campaign was launched on February 23 with 200,000 doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine. Two days later, President Macky Sall was vaccinated at the State House.
To date, 39,938 people have received their injections in this country of 16 million inhabitants. The objective of the Covax initiative is to ensure equitable access to vaccines worldwide.
ID/te/lb/abj/APA