The government of Cabo Delgado province, in northern Mozambique, plans to inoculate 121,000 people as part of its drive to vaccinate the population against Covid-19, which kicked off on Wednesday, the local governor, Valige Tauabo, announced.
“The use of the vaccine represents a national priority of the government’s strategy to alleviate the socio-economic and health impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, by reducing the burden of severe forms of the disease and mortality,” the governor said at a ceremony to launch the vaccination campaign in Pemba, the provincial capital.
According to the governor, in the first phase of the campaign for mass vaccination in Mozambique, the eligible group is people aged over 50 in professions that include teaching, driving and ticket collectors in passenger transport vans, motorcyclists, former combatants and civil servants.
“The vaccine to be administered to these groups will contribute to a significant reduction in the burden of the disease and ensure that everyone can continue actively working towards the development of the country,” said Tauabo.
Since March last year, when the first case was identified in Mozambique of the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19, the province of Cabo Delgado has had a cumulative 3,500 or so cases of infection and 12 deaths.
Mozambique is currently facing its third wave of coronavirus infections, with record numbers of deaths and hospitalisations in recent weeks. The national cumulative totals are 1,526 deaths and 127,425 confirmed cases, according to the latest updates.
Worldwide, the pandemic has caused at least 4,247,231 deaths, among more than 199.5 million cases of infection, according to calculations by Agence France Presse based on official data.
The respiratory disease is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, detected in late 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China, and currently with variants identified in countries including the UK, India, South Africa, Brazil and Peru.
Lusa
