DAKAR, Dec 16 (NNN-IRIN) – Dr. Mamadou Ndiaye, the director of Prevention, Senegalese Ministry of Health and Social Action, said, the first doses of anti-COVID-19 vaccine will be available in Senegal from Mar, 2021.
During an interview with radio Sud FM, Dr. Ndiaye said, members of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, including Senegal, would have these first doses after approval by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Dr. Ndiaye explained that, Gavi members were guaranteed to have their first doses by the end of the first quarter of 2021, through a partnership with WHO, UNICEF, World Bank and the European Union.
According to him, since 1976 and the start of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), Senegal has never used a vaccine that had not been previously approved by the WHO.
Senegalese Minister of Health and Social Action, Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr, declared that, the country had not chosen a vaccine at this stage, but that it was participating in the international mechanism for group purchasing of the vaccines.
“The vaccine that we will choose in this context will be the vaccine that will be approved by the World Health Organisation,” he stressed.
Since Mar 2, Senegal recorded 17,216 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 350 deaths and 16,243 recoveries.– NNN-IRIN
