Govt encourages Covid-19 vaccine uptake

Public Health Institute in Malawi director Dr Ben Chilima has encouraged people to get the Covid-19 vaccine, saying government has provided enough human and material resources for the exercise.

He said this in an interview after a civil society organisations (CSOs) engagement with Malawi Red Cross Society on non-governmental organisations’ role in creating public awareness of the vaccine in Dowa on Thursday.

Said Chilima: “Government is doing its best providing resources but still the numbers turning up are low. The major problem is that many people are still misinformed about the vaccine.”

He said the engagement was important because it equipped CSOs with key information on the vaccine to complement government’s efforts in creating awareness.

On her part, Malawi Red Cross Society director of programmes Prisca Chisala said the organisation set aside K150 million to support the national vaccine campaign rollout.

She said from the amount, K40 million was allocated to trainings of stakeholders to assist the Ministry of Health’s  awareness campaigns on the vaccine.

“We have conducted various programmes and now we are focusing more on the vaccine,” said Chisala.

Malawi received 360 000 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine from the Covax Facility and an additional 50 000 vaccines from the Government of India. As of Saturday, 109 526 people had received the vaccine.