Nice to dispel Covid-19 vaccine misconceptions

National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Trust says it will conduct a Covid-19 vaccine awareness campaign in Karonga to clear misconceptions.

The news comes at a time when the country has just taken delivery of its first consignment of AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine.

Speaking in an interview, Karonga District Nice civic education officer Christobel Munthali said they will engage their volunteers to change the people’s mindset towards the vaccine.

She said: “We will also air messages and programmes on community radio stations.

“Again, we use existing structures such as village savings and loans groups and fishing camps to disseminate information on Covid-19 vaccine.”

In a separate interview, Karonga District Hospital director of health and social services David Sibale said they will orient health surveillance assistants to dispel the misconceptions among people.

“People should not fear the vaccine because it is for their own good,” he said.

Karonga is one of the districts where people have misconceptions about the Covid-19 pandemic.

In recent times, people have attacked health workers and ambulances due to misconceptions about Covid-19.

Meanwhile, Ministry of Health says government is targeting to immunize 11 million people in the country with the Covid-19 vaccine, representing 60 percent of the critical population.

By Tuesday, the country had recorded 32 528 Covid-19 cases, including 1074 deaths since recording the first three cases in April last year.