President Bio receives his first blow as Sierra Leone rolls out coronavirus vaccination

African news for Monday, March 15, 2021

Source: theeastafrican.co.ke

03/15/2021

President Julius Maada Bio has become the first person to be vaccinated in Sierra Leone as the country rolled out its Covid-19 vaccination program on Monday.

President Bio was vaccinated in a special ceremony at Freetown State House, alongside the country’s Vice President Dr Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh and other senior government officials including ministers and lawmakers .

At the start of the ceremony, President Bio said he was the first in the country to be vaccinated in order to encourage citizens to get vaccinated.

“I can’t ask people to take the vaccine without taking it first,” he said.

The National Coronavirus Response Center (NaCOVERC) said the country had received vaccine donations from China and the WHO-coordinated Covax program.

Sierra Leone currently has 296,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine, comprising 200,000 doses of the Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccine and 96,000 doses of AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine from the Covax facility.

NaCOVERC said it aimed to cover 150 people on Monday alone, mostly “high-level politicians.”

Officials did not disclose which version of the two available vaccines President Bio had taken.

A NaCOVERC spokesperson told The EastAfrican that this information is personal and it is up to the person receiving the vaccine to decide whether or not to disclose the details.

Harold Thomas, head of risk communication at NaCOVERC, said personal information is considered to determine which of the two vaccines will be given to individuals.

There have been concerns in the public about the safety of vaccines, especially the Sinopharm vaccine, and some people have suggested that the president and his senior officials take the vaccine first to assure them of its safety.

After the vaccine rolls out on Monday, a Grand National launch is slated for March 22 at the Miatta Conference Center in Freetown, where officials say the focus will be on healthcare workers, as well as people over 60. years. Vaccination for the rest of the country will begin thereafter.

The launch of the vaccination program comes amid the decline in Covid-19 cases in the country.

As of March 14, Sierra Leone had registered 3,937 cumulative confirmed cases of the virus. The western urban area (comprising the capital Freetown and its environs), was the epicenter of the pandemic in the country, accounting for 2,244 cases of the total cases.