On Monday 20 November, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) handed over 22 vehicles equipped with cold storage systems to the Mozambican Ministry of Health to support the vaccination plan, in an investment of 2.8 million dollars.
According to a source from the Ministry of Health (MISAU), JICA’s support also involves four containerised trucks, which are due to arrive in Mozambique in May next year, with the aim of “reinforcing the activities” of the Expanded Vaccination Programme (PAV).
The source said that the vehicles will “boost the sector’s transport and supply chain for vaccines and medicines”, while also supporting the provision of services in health units and more remote communities through mobile brigades.
“The 22 vehicles will be distributed in all of the country’s 11 provinces, to give greater capacity to the vaccine distribution chain, which requires low temperatures in its distribution from the provincial and intermediate depots to the district and community level,” he explained.
Last October, the Ministry of Health had already delivered another 33 vehicles to districts across the country, acquired with the support of the World Bank, which are part of the first batch of a total of 75 to be acquired under the same programme.
