MOGADISHU (Halbeeg News) – Somalia on Sunday received 108,000 doses of oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine donated by the government of France to boost the war against COVID-19 pandemic in the Horn of African State.
Fawziya Abikar Nur, Minister of Health and Human Services, lauded France’s support at a critical moment when the country was fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
The arrival of this new batch of COVID-19 vaccines at a critical time, as cases in Somalia are on the rise,” Ms. Abikar said. “The only way to stop the spread of the virus to get the population vaccinated. We are grateful for this latest donation from the government of France.”
The vaccines were donated through the COVAX Facility, a partnership between the coalition for Epidermic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the United Nations Children’s Fund and World Health Organization (WHO) in continued efforts to protect Somalia’s population from COVID-19.
France Ambassador to Somalia, Aline Kuster-Menager has expressed his government’s commitment to help Somalia bolster vaccination efforts.
“This donation is part of a global effort from France. President Macron has pledged to give 60 million doses of the vaccine before the end of 2021. This a global pandemic and France is committed to ensuring the equitable distributions of the COVID-19 vaccine around the world, if we are to contain the spread of COVID-19, we have to work together,” the ambassador.
Since the outbreak on March 2020, Somalia reported a total of 15,788 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 including 847 deaths as of 7th August 2021.
Somalia so far vaccinated less 1.8% of its population.
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