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| toubab1020 |
Posted - 17 Apr 2021 : 12:28:31
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https://standard.gm/7-out-of-every-10-gambians-believe-prayer-is-more-effective-than-covid-19-vaccine0/
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NEWS.
April 16, 2021
A survey conducted by Afrobarometer, a non-partisan, pan-African research institution conducting public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, the economy, and society has revealed that about seven in 10 citizens or 69 percent of Gambians believe prayer is more effective than a vaccine in preventing one contracting coronavirus.
In a new report dubbed ‘Views on Covid-19 and government’s response to the pandemic’, most Gambians believe prayer is a more effective means to preventing Covid-19.
The report on Covid-19 was released on Wednesday and on its findings on a vaccine, “about seven in 10 citizens (69%) say prayer is more effective than a vaccine would be in preventing COVID-19 infection, including 52% who think prayer is “much more effective.”
Researchers interviewed Gambians who are aged 18 and above with respondents selected randomly.
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| 2 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| toubab1020 |
Posted - 17 Apr 2021 : 12:36:55
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https://www.chronicle.gm/gambia-secures-more-funds-for-covid-19-vaccines/
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BY Musa Keita
BANJUL, The Gambia, April 16, 2021
-Today, the World Bank Board approved $8 million additional financing from the International Development Association (IDA) to provide The Gambia with safe and effective vaccine purchase and deployment.
“With this additional financing, the World Bank is helping The Gambia strengthen their pandemic response and health care systems, as well as scale up its vaccination campaign, with a total contribution of $19 million towards the implementation of the Government’s National COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Plan,” said Feyi Boroffice, World Bank Resident Representative for The Gambia.
The additional financing for Gambia COVID-19 Vaccine Preparedness and Response Project will strengthen immunization systems and service delivery capacity to support the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out. It will expand The Gambia’s access to vaccines, through direct purchases from manufacturers and other arrangements through the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust convened by the African Union.
The Gambia receives COVAX vaccines of COVID-19
“The COVAX Facility will provide vaccine doses to cover 480,000 people and this additional financing from the World Bank will make it possible to have sufficient vaccine doses to cover 980,000 more people, with nearly all adults in the Gambia having access,” said Samuel Mills, World Bank Task Team Leader for the project. “It is now important for people to be adequately informed that the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the risk of not getting the vaccine.”
To help prepare the National Deployment and Vaccination Plan for COVID-19 vaccines, the government conducted a vaccine readiness assessment with support from the World Bank, the World Health Organizations (WHO), the United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI). The assessment showed that the country has trained medical staff, a monitoring system in place, as well as adequate storage capacity to handle both routine vaccines and COVID-19 vaccine at temperatures between 2°C and 8°C. This additional financing will also support the procurement of ultracold freezers to augment the cold chain to store vaccines such as the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine which require sub-zero storage, and the freezers will subsequently be used by the National Blood Transfusion Center for storing blood plasma.
In addition, the World Bank has supported the Ministry of Health in procuring innovative and environment friendly health care waste treatment technology to allow safe decontamination in hospitals. The Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony will be held tomorrow for the construction of clinical waste treatment centers at Farato and at Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital. The project contributed to the renovation of the Ndemban Clinic, which operates as a COVID-19 treatment center, and procured 10 ambulances for intensive care, critical life-saving medical equipment and supplies, as well as six pickup trucks and 18 motorcycles to facilitate contact tracing and response.
This $8 million funding package for The Gambia is one of several projects in support for the COVID-19 vaccination effort across Africa and other regions. Today, the World Bank Board also approved additional financing for Côte d’Ivoire ($100 million), Eswatini ($5 million), Rwanda ($30 million), El Salvador ($50 million) and Honduras ($20 million). |
| toubab1020 |
Posted - 17 Apr 2021 : 12:31:44
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https://standard.gm/ministry-rues-low-acceptance-of-covid-19-vaccine-0/
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By Tabora Bojang on April 15, 2021
The Ministry of Health has said it is worried about the slow pace of the covid-19 vaccination programme amid discouraging statistics following the launch of a vaccination campaign against the deadly virus last month.
As of April 6, fewer than 15, 000 people had received shots in the first phase of the campaign targeting over 480,000 people mainly of vulnerable groups including elderly, health care workers, security forces, teachers and people with underlying health conditions.
The Gambia received over 51,000 doses of the Oxford vaccine under the Covax scheme and another donation of 10, 000 doses of the Chinese Company Sinopharm given by Senegal.
The Director of Health Services, Dr. Mustapha Bittaye told The Standard that the statistics are not encouraging regarding a smooth acceptance of the vaccine by the Gambian populace.
“We were expecting that all the vaccines would have been taken by now but this current trend is very slow,” he queried.
Health Minister, Dr Ahmadou Lamin Samateh said at the launch of the vaccination campaign that Gambians are known to be highly receptive to vaccination dating back to 1979, saying the same is expected with the Covid-dose.
According to Dr. Bittaye, the Covid vaccine could not get the expected reception due to “the conspiracy theories and misconceptions” about Covid-19.
Dr Bittaye further claimed politicians who were publicly talking negative things about the vaccination have exacerbated public hesitations against the dose.
He said the slow progress of the vaccination among staff from public institutions and rural settlers could hamper the country’s plans to vaccinate 60 percent of the population.
“We could have done better but looking at the acceptance level within rural communities it is very low and even within the institutions some are not coming so we need to do more engagement.
Implications
According to Dr Bittaye, all vaccines have expiration dates, and some recommended vaccines for the coronavirus have a validity period of just months after which they are not recommended for use.
He said the implication for the low acceptance of the doses is that “vaccines are not here forever, if we don’t use it after sometime, it will expire.”
He also stated that it will place an unnecessary financial burden on travelers leaving the Gambia since they would be obliged to self-cost quarantine if the Gambia fails to vaccinate at least 50 percent of its population.
“It would be very difficult for us to open up, because we will still be labeled a red unless we can vaccinate a good percentage of our population,” Dr Bittaye disclosed.
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