Mozambique: Government Acquires 11 Million Vaccine Doses

16 JULY 2021

Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)

Maputo — In his address to the nation on Thursday night, Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi announced that the government has acquired 11 million more doses of vaccine against Covid-19, which should reach the country by the end of August.

This, he said, would make it possible to step up the vaccination campaign, so that, by the end of the year, the majority of eligible Mozambicans will have been vaccinated.

"This mass vaccination will allow our country to make a safe and gradual transition to a situation close to normality", said Nyusi, stressing that the success of this transition will depend on the collaboration and solidarity of all Mozambicans.

But, even after taking two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, all citizens, he added, must continue to observe basic preventive measures, including the obligatory use of masks in public places, regular washing or disinfection of hands and social distancing.

To date, Mozambique has received 1.402 million doses of vaccine - 384,000 doses from the Covax initiative coordinated by the World Health Organisation (WHO), 500,000 purchased by Mozambican private companies, 260,000 donated by the Chinese government and the Chinese armed forces, and 100,000 donated by the Indian government.

With Nyusi's announcement, the number of vaccine doses available will reach just over 12.4 million. At two doses each, that is enough to vaccinate fully 6.2 million people. The government's target is to vaccinate 17 million people by the end of the year.

Nyusi did not say where the 11 million doses would come from, or whether they were purchased or donated.