Fighting COVID-19 matter of life, death: Zambian president

By James Kunda

LUSAKA, Zambia (AA) – Calling the fight against COVID-19 “a matter of life and death”, the Zambian president Thursday called on people to make the country’s vaccination campaign a success.

Relaunching the vaccination program in the capital Lusaka, Hakainde Hichilema said since the pandemic's first outbreak last March, his country has recorded 209,172 cases and 3,649 deaths.

Out of a targeted 3.6 million eligible citizens, the country has only vaccinated a paltry 3%, leaving Hichilema's ambition to attain a 70% vaccination target in limbo.

“I got vaccinated because I still have a lot of unfinished business to take care of,” the president said, asking people to get vaccinated.

Health Minister Sylvia Masebo, who took the jab at the event, announced that the US had pledged an extra 1.6 million vaccine doses to the Southern African nation.

These included 650,000 vaccine doses of AstraZeneca, 580,000 doses of Pfizer, 336,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson, and 118,000 doses of Moderna.

Masebo called on citizens to get their jabs as vaccination is key in averting a looming fourth wave of the pandemic expected in December.