Govt extends Covid-19 vaccine target deadline

Ministry of Health has extended the deadline of achieving a target to vaccinate about 13.4 million out of the country’s 18 million people from December 31 2022 to June 30 2023 following the low uptake of Covid-19 vaccine.

The extension comes against the background that the World Heath Organisation (WHO) set December 2022 as a deadline for African countries to vaccinate 70 percent of their populations.

As at November 29 2022, about 3.2 million people were fully vaccinated, representing about 23.9 percent of the targeted 13.4 million population. Cumulatively 29.9 percent of the targeted population has received a first dose while about 550 633 people have received the booster vaccine.

If the country is to achieve the target by June 30 2023, it needs to vaccinate an average of 48 571 people per day.

But in an interview yesterday, Presidential Task force on Covid-19 co-chairperson Wilfred Chalamira Nkhoma expressed optimism that the country will achieve the WHO target 70 percent of the population following the extension.

He said government has intensified awareness campaigns to achieve the set target.

Said Chalamira Nkhoma: “For us to move closer to our target of 70 percent, they [Ministry of Health] are having at least one week mass Covid-19 vaccine campaign per month.

“Besides, the ministry is still doing the door-to-door campaigns and public health facilities also continue to administer the vaccine to Malawians.”

H o w e v e r , epidemiologists Gama Bandawe and Adamson Muula cast doubts that the country will achieve the target to vaccinate about 13.4 million people by June 30 2023.

They both observed that government has tried what it could to raise awareness on the importance of Covid-19 vaccine, but most Malawians have negative attitude towards the vaccine.

Bandawe, who heads the Department of Biological Sciences in the Academy of Medical Sciences at the Malawi University of Science and Technology, observed that Malawians accept other new vaccines for cholera and malaria, unlike Covid-19 vaccine.

He said: “Things that came with Covid-19 such as restrictions and political sort of issues have created a very different picture around issues to do with Covid-19 vaccine.

“So we will see whether we will be able to achieve those targets, but it’s not going to be easy.”

Muula, who is Kamuzu University of Health Sciences epidemiology and public health professor, observed that it will be difficult to increase the Covid-19 vaccine uptake as the pandemic is no longer visible in most communities.

“In the absence of ill health, disease or deaths, it will be difficult to increase Covid-19 vaccine uptake, unless they are encouraged by something,” he said.

Meanwhile, reports indicate that some doses of Pfizer vaccines expired on November 30 2022. When asked, Chalamira Nkhoma said he was aware of the matter, but could not give details.

He referred The Nation to Expanded Programme on Immunisation coordinator Mike Chisema.

When contacted, he claimed that all the doses that were expected to expire by Wednesday were administered.

But sources within the ministry claimed Chisema was giving wrong information as about 10 000 Pfizer doses expired by Wednesday.