Dr. Lia Tadesse, the Minister of Health, told the media today that the ministry has begun distributing the 400,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses it got a few days ago to all areas.
The COVAX Facility has delivered 2.184 million doses of the Astra Zeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Ethiopia for the first phase. This is a significant step toward our objective of ensuring an equal global distribution of COVID-19 vaccinations in what will be the world’s biggest vaccine procurement and supply operation.
The vaccinations are being distributed by the Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Supply Agency.
According to the ministry, the second dosage of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be administered in Addis Ababa tomorrow and in the regional cities of Ethiopia on Friday.
She also stated that the ministry expects to receive around 1.7 million doses in August and that it would continue to provide second doses to the two million persons who have already got the first dosage.
Furthermore, Dr. Lia noted that the Ethiopian Public Health Institute and the Armor Hanson Research Institute have been investigating genetic sequencing of COVID-19 variations, as well as identifying and detecting Alpha and Beta genomes in Ethiopia.
The institutes have also begun collecting samples for testing on Delta genome sequencing, with the findings of the sequencing procedure to be announced by the ministry.
