A new COVID-19 vaccination campaign has been launched by the Malawi Government and the World Health Organisation (W.H.O) following the growing numbers of fresh cases.
The campaign was flagged off on Monday in 10 of Malawi’s 29 districts as new cases were confirmed across the country for the past three weeks.
The southern Malawian district of Nsanje is currently leading the country in COVID-19 cases reported thus far this year.
According to a spokesman for the local health office, George Mbotwa, the district has recorded 17 new cases in the last three weeks, some of which involve health personnel.
“Initially there were two, but we had up to eight cases that were health workers,” Mbotwa said. “Some of them have now been confirmed as negative, and others are being followed up to ensure that they are fully recovered before they can resume work.”
As of Monday, Malawi has registered 89,202 confirmed cases overall, including 2,686 deaths, since the country’s first COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Malawi in April 2020.
According to Malawi’s Ministry of Health, more people would receive the COVID-19 vaccine as a result of the recent immunization campaign.
In some parts of Malawi, vaccination rates are as low as 40%.
The program, which is supported by the WHO, also claims to help prevent vaccine waste, similar to what happened in 2020 when the government disposed of around 20,000 AstraZeneca doses that had expired.
The expiry of the vaccines was due to fears about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccination, but recent public health campaigns on COVID-19 vaccines by the government have helped dismiss them.
