July 27, 2021
By Ilyaaa Baa
Vaccination has been considered by many schools of thought as the best method to prevent and control the spread of Covid-19.
In the United States of America, opposition politicians are now calling on their people to take the vaccines. It has been described by experts as the most powerful arsenal for countries to get rid of the pandemic.
The decrease in the number of COVID 19 cases in Sierra Leone has positioned the country on the path of bending the curve on the third wave of the Delta variant as government is making frantic efforts to bring in more Astrozenica vaccines by the first week of August.
Currently, about 40,000 doses are quarantined in various districts facilities after they became expired recently. In March, the country received donation of 42,000 doses of Astrazenica vaccine from the African Union (AU) which was supposed to expire shortly. Out of that number, about 2000 doses were utilized before their expiration and the Ministry of Health and Sanitation will take decision on what to do with them.
The 96,000 doses donated through the COVERC Scheme were utilized
before July when they were supposed to expire. However, Nacoverc has dispelled rumors that expired vaccines are being administered to people. According to Nacoverc mouthpiece, Solomon Jamiru, ethical standards and the Standard Operating Procedure do not permit anyone to administer expired drugs in the country.
Currently, the Cinopharm and Oxford Astrozenica vaccines are available as the Pharmacy Board of Sierra Leone has validated these vaccines as being safe to administer. Our Cinopharm vaccines have a life span of two more years to expire.
Experts have opined that more tests should be done to have a realistic picture of the cases. Before the imposition of the existing measures, the country had recorded over 500 cases but after the pronouncement of His Excellency, President Maada Bio on 1st July, the cases dropped to 292 confirmed cases and ever since the number of cases continues to drop drastically.