São Tomé explains that vaccines to be destroyed were donated by Portugal and Covax
Filomena Monteiro reaffirmed that what the country must destroy until March 31, part of the 54 thousand doses of vaccines received in these partners, but originated that these vaccines do not come exclusively from Portugal.
“The country at the time received vaccines from Portugal and the Covax platform. Therefore, those that arrived in December [do ano passado]already with a very short expiration date, so these are the ones we have in this situation [de fim de validade]. They are not just from Portugal”, clarified the minister.
The Covax international equitable access vaccine mechanism is co-led by the Global Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation.
The minister said on Wednesday that the São Tomé government should not have received this batch of vaccines in December, explaining that the expiration date already indicated that it would not be possible to administer them to the population, given the poor adherence to the yes process. .
“There are 54 thousand [doses] — there are 54 thousand people – from December to here. It’s almost 50% what we vaccinate for a year. Not February,” explained the minister who took over on February 1, replacing Edgar Neves.
However, the Minister of Health stressed that the vaccines will still be used in the campaign, still within a validity period still in account in the course in the country until today.
“All the vaccines that are being used are on time — all of them. We are not going to use expired vaccines for our population, it is to do harm, when we have a deposit with many vaccines”, explained Filomena Monteiro, ensuring that the vaccines left over from this batch will be burned from April.
A ministered to the population at the age covered for the good of the appearance of the country, good of the health of each population
On Tuesday, São Tomé completed one year since the beginning of the 7-month campaign, which provided for vaccinating 0% of the population in 12 months.
Currently, data from the Ministry of Health indicate that 51.4% of the population received the first dose and 39.1% are fully immunized.
The official defended that “it is necessary to continue working so that the coverage is increased” and the country can reach “the national goals recommended by the World Health Organization of having 70% of the population vaccinated by the end of the month”.
So far5, there have been five doses 202.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the country has recorded 5,938 positive cases, 72 deaths and 5,862 recoveries from the disease.
There are currently four official cases on the island of São Tomé.
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