BY MAVIS N PODOKOLO
SEVEN thousand doses of AstraZeneca vaccine will be used in Honiara while 17,000 doses will be sent to the Western border.
This is the roll-out plan for the 24,000 vaccines received on Friday last week.
Dr Yogesh Choudhri technical advisor to Health Ministry, confirming this last week, said:
“The vaccine will be rolled out on Wednesday at the Central Field hospital which was the identified location for roll out of the vaccine in Honiara.
“Currently a total of 24,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in Solomon Islands and they are being kept right now at the National Medical stores in proper storage conditions that the vaccine requires.
“The priority population are the front liners because there is a likelyhood they will be exposed to covid-19 patients so that includes our health workers, the police, the securities, the customs, immigration officers and the people who working on the ports.
“The Western province will roll out the vaccine to all those people who are 18 years and above because of the risk of importing covid-19 cases directly into the community,” he said.
Choudhri said vaccination is an important public health measure to prevent further community transmission incase the virus finds its way in the community.
“So, we are the second country in the Pacific to have received the vaccine through COVAX facility.
“As we receive more vaccine and we are likely to receive 84,000 doses of the vaccine from the COVAX by the end of June we will be rolling out the vaccine to other priority groups,” he said.
