First batch of COVID-19 vaccines finally arrives in Tanzania

Tanzania on Sunday received the first batch of over 1 million Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines donated through the World Health Organization's COVAX initiative. The vaccines were received by Dorothy Gwajima, Tanzania's health minister and Liberata Mulamula, the foreign affairs minister, at Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam.

Gwajima announced the country initially plans to inoculate about 34 million of its population. This represents 60 percent of Tanzanians, who will be vaccinated on a voluntary basis, while priority will be given to frontline health care workers and people with chronic diseases, as well as adults 50 years and over.

"I would like to inform the public that the ministry has done its part on the verification process, and today on behalf of the government we have received the first batch of 1,058,400 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine," Gwajima said.

She also sought to assure the public that the vaccine is safe after first being verified by the World Health Organization and later the country through its own verification systems, a procedure being employed with other imported vaccines.

"We will announce health centers where the vaccines will be available and the procedures that will be used to provide the vaccine. The government is committed to ensuring that every Tanzanian gets the vaccine for free," Gwajima said.

While disclosing the country is expecting to receive other kinds of vaccines in the coming few weeks, the health minister directed the country's responsible organs to prepare well for the exercise to give people timely access to the vaccines.

"I call upon the public, particularly the first priority groups, to go for the vaccines to reduce the rate of infection and long treatments, including piling up of patients in health facilities demanding ventilator machines," she said.