October 22, 2021
By Mohamed Jalloh
NaCOVERC, the national structure setup to combat the Covid -19 pandemic has disclosed to the media about plans to kick start a second vaccination surge.
It was revealed that the second vaccination surge would start on the Monday 25th October 2021.
The revelation was made at the Ministry of Information and Communications weekly press briefing that is conducted every Thursday.
Dr. Tom Sesay, the Covid-19 response vaccine pillar leads acknowledged the prevalence of gaps when it comes to appealing to people to be vaccinated against the pandemic.
Dr Sesay said in the early stages of the vaccination process, a lot of people were in hesitation to be jabbed because of misconceptions that were conceived by a large section of the general public.
He established that at the moment people are flooding vaccination centers across the country, because misconceptions have withered away and Nacoverc continues to give assurances about the safety of the vaccines.
The second vaccine surge is a sequel to a massive vaccination campaign that was launched at the beginning of October 2021.
The first vaccination campaign targeted groups in their occupational centres as Kekeh riders and motorcycle riders were targeted at their parks when they are in their multitudes.
According to Solomon Jamiru the NaCOVERC spokesman, the second vaccination surge to begin on Monday 25th October 2021 would replicate the strategy adopted in the first surge by similarly targeting groups.
The NaCOVERC mouth piece said the second vaccination surge would also target crowd generating events such as trade fairs, mosques and churches, cinemas and football matches.
Mr. Jamiru said during the second vaccination surge both footballers and fans would be tested and subsequently vaccinated against Covid 19.
He further confirmed that vulnerable groups such as people living with disabilities would also be a priority in the second vaccination surge.
He also noted that worshipers frequenting places of worship would be a priority in the 2nd vaccination surge.
Mr. Jamiru said about Le 30 Billion have been dispensed in the entire fight against Covid-19 and there are proper mechanisms to ensure that all the resources would be accounted for.
A breakdown of the vaccination exercise from NaCOVERC informs that about 252,640 people have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
Another 198,461 people above 18 years and above have at least received a single dose of vaccine.
It was further revealed that the western area rural district is currently topping the chart in terms of the highest number of vaccination, which stands at 8.6% of the population in the district above 18 years and above.
NaCOVERC further confirmed that they have so far received 1,186,370 doses of vaccines from various sources including Covax, China and the United States Of America.
According to Dr. Sam Sesay the vaccine pillar lead, NaCOVERC needs about 8.4 million doses of vaccines to be fully sufficient in vaccinating the entire population.