President
Samia Suluhu Hassan, along with Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa and other top
officials, was administered the Johnson & Johnson jab live on television as
Tanzania kicked off a campaign that aims to eventually vaccinate at least 60%
of its population of around 58 million.
The East
African nation has drastically changed its stance on the pandemic since Hassan
took office in March after the death of former President John Magufuli, an
ardent coronavirus skeptic who touted prayer as the best cure and shunned masks
and vaccines.
Hassan, in
her address at the ceremony, emphasized the safety of the COVID-19 jabs and
urged Tanzanians to get vaccinated.
“I am a
mother, a grandmother with several grandchildren, a wife, and on top of that, I
am the president and commander-in-chief of our armed forces. I wouldn’t risk my
life and all my responsibilities if I knew that this injection may be harmful,”
she said.
Tanzania
received a shipment of just over 1 million doses from the US this past weekend
under the global vaccine-sharing COVAX initiative.
Hassan said
the government has placed an order through the African Union to import more
doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine from South Africa.
Dorothy
Gwajima, the country’s health minister, stressed that the imported vaccines
have been declared safe by Tanzanian experts.
She said
vaccinations will start in 10 regions during the first phase and gradually
expand throughout the country.
Frontline
health workers, the elderly, and people with underlying health conditions will
be prioritized for vaccination, according to the minister.
Starting
May 2020, Tanzania refused to share figures on coronavirus infections in the
country for over a year but finally released new data earlier this month.
According
to the Africa CDC, the virus tally in the country was 858 as of Wednesday,
including 651 active cases.
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