Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary for Technical Services Dr Kennedy Malama says the country is today expected to receive another consignment of 151,200 doses of the Johnson and Johnsons vaccine from the United States Government.
Speaking during the Covid-19 update, Dr Malama said this is part of dose sharing through the COVAX Facility.
Dr Malama noted that the Emirates plane carrying the vaccines is expected to touch down at 14:35hrs.
He said the government has placed a premium on COVID-19 vaccine mobilization, stating that the 4.4 million doses procured by Government are expected in the country within this quarter.
“This is in addition to the other vaccines namely Sinopharm, AstraZeneca, Pfizer which are in the pipeline under the COVAX Facility,” he said.
He added that in the last 24 hours, 3,500 Dose 1 and 10,483 Dose 2 of AstraZeneca as well as 5,699 doses of Johnson and Johnson, have been administered.
“For Zambia, vaccination for COVID-19 is voluntary but we urge members of the public to consider getting vaccinated as the vaccine induces immunity which reduces the chances of getting infected but more importantly getting the severe disease and dying from COVID-19,” said Dr. Malama.
He further said in the last 24 hours 640 new confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported out of 7,224 tests conducted, giving a positivity of 9%.
The Permanent Secretary also said 21 new COVID-19 related deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours.
“We discharged 869 patients 83 from facilities and 786 from community management, bringing the cumulative number of recoveries to 183,534,” Dr. Malama said.
He explained that currently, the ministry has 6,106 active cases, with 5,556 under community-based management and 550 admitted to COVID-19 treatment facilities.
“We had 62 new admissions in the last 24 hours, among those currently admitted, 403 are on Oxygen therapy and 151 are in critical condition,” he said.
This will annoy upnd supporters who are desperate for more deaths in Zambia . Those motherfcukers
No stup!d KZ it only annoys me that once again this is a gift from a foreign donor. Your thieving incompetent corrupt government has up till now not even spent ONE KWACHA on buying vaccines! ARE YOU NOT ASHAMED!!!
Is it our fault we are loved and got good international connections? Why should we refuse gifts? Hahaha fuseke. Go and buy vaccines for your relatives in village if you don’t want our government to vaccinate them using our gifts.