A total of 25,628 covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far in Solomon Islands.
These includes 5,987 of people that have completed their second doses, meaning that they are now fully vaccinated.
Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare highlighted in his nation-wide address on Monday this week.
The Prime Minister said so far implementation for covid-19 vaccination roll-out programs have covered targeted populations in Honiara, Western province, Choiseul province, Malaita Outer Islands and Guadalcanal province.
“This means 5,987 people are now fully vaccinated and a further 13,654 people have received first doses. However, this also means that only 19,641 people have received vaccinations out of a possible target population of around 450,000 adults, which is only about four percent of the target population in the country,” he said.
Yet, the Prime Minister said the country’s vaccination rate is very slow.
Therefore, he said vaccination is now open for all adults above 18 years of age.
Prime Minister Sogavare said we cannot wait because COVID-19 is not going to wait for us to get vaccinated.
“In Honiara 5,917 people have completed their 2nd doses, this is about 10 percent of Honiara’s target population. Second dose rollouts in Western province, Choiseul province and Malaita outer Islands will commence from this week,” he said.
The Prime Minister also encouraged people in the provinces that have undertaken their first dose to compete their second dose to be fully vaccinated.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sogavare said the fight against COVID-19 have now reached the stage where we must roll-out the COVID-19 vaccination throughout the nation for all adults that are 18 years of age and over.
“With the increasing threat from the highly transmissible ‘Delta Variant of COVID-19’, which is now proven to be air-born, the Government has decided to implement a full rollout of vaccination in all provinces for all adults over 18 years of age,” he said.
The Prime Minister said there are more than 100,000 doses of AstraZeneca and Sinopharm vaccines available and more vaccines to be supplied by our partners.
–OPMC PRESS
