LUSAKA, Sept. 4 — Zambia has acquired more COVID-19 vaccines as part of efforts to ramp up its vaccination program, a government official said on Saturday.
The 4,400,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine have been acquired under the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust, an initiative of the African Union (AU).
Kennedy Malama, Permanent Secretary in charge of Technical Services in the Ministry of Health said the government has approved the procurement of the vaccines under the AU initiative as part of continued efforts to build vaccine stockpiles.
He said the country will receive the first consignment of 129,600 doses under the AU facility next week.
Zambia launched its vaccination program in April as one of the pillars to fight the pandemic, with five vaccines approved for use in the southern African nation.
Meanwhile, the official said the ministry was prioritizing genomic sequencing for robust surveillance to rapidly detect the presence of mutating COVID-19 variants as the country was at risk of importing the mutated variants.
He said in a release that the government has also ramped up scientific investigations and local research that will be crucial to documenting the country’s response efforts and informing decision-making. (Xinhua)
Zambia acquires more COVID-19 vaccines
