BY ALFRED PAGEPITU
The country is expecting more batches of AstraZeneca vaccine in the coming months.
These are the remaining 84,000 from the allocated 108,000 which COVAX facility had earmarked for Solomon Islands.
This is according to the Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, in his nationwide address yesterday.
He adds, the Government of India has responded favourably to his government’s request for 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines.
“We are currently finalising the necessary paperwork to be given to the responsible authorities in the Government of India after which we will be informed of the specific delivery and logistics arrangements.
“Our vaccination roll out in the border zone is currently underway,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sogavare said the health teams in Western province, Choiseul province, and Malaita Outer Islands have already commenced awareness meetings in all three provinces.
He added that a team from the Ministry of Health will deploy this week to jointly conduct further training for vaccination teams in the Western and Choiseul provinces in the first instance.
“It is our hope that COVID-19 vaccination will start rolling out in Western Province as early as next Monday, 12th April 2021 to be followed closely by the roll out in Choiseul province and then Malaita outer Islands.
“A total of 17,000 does of the AstraZeneca vaccine is being deployed to the border zone to vaccinate our communities along the emergency zone at the western border,” said Sogavare.
