The country has run out of first doses of the Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccine.
The Covax facility, through which
The facility is co-led by the
Moreover, being a middle-income country,
Minister of health and social services Kalumbi Shangula on Friday said the biggest issue affecting
This, Shangula said, has left the country competing with European countries to access vaccines.
He said
"For instance, we would order 250 000 doses, while a European country would order a million doses. From a business perspective, the European country would be prioritised ... and all the vaccines are produced elsewhere, outside
Shangula said procuring vaccines has been difficult for
"We have gone through the Covax facility, which is meant to ensure equitable access to vaccines. However, even the Covax facility has been struggling to acquire vaccines to distribute, and although we have paid, we are still waiting for the third consignment. We do not know when it will come," he said.
He said
DOSES ADMINISTERED
Overall, the country has administered 141 164 vaccinations after receiving 197 200 doses, which means 56 036 are left for both first and second jabs.
The country earlier this year received 100 000 doses. The vaccine is administered in two doses per person.
The ministry administered 534 additional first doses, hoping the second batch of Sinopharm vaccines, which the country has bought, would arrive in time for second doses.
Furthermore,
This amounts to 97 200
So far, the country has administered 67 098 first doses of the
The Covax facility is set to deliver an additional 40 800 doses of
The AU will also deliver 250 000 vials of the
Between Friday and Saturday, the ministry recorded 95 new deaths linked to Covid-19, bringing the country's overall Covid-19 death toll to 1 400.
Over the same two days,
Over the past week,
Two weeks earlier, the country recorded 6 148 new infections and 88 deaths during the seven days up to 12 June.
VARIANTS AND WAVES
Shangula said
"We are currently trying to identify that [a new variant]. We are busy checking if there are also some other variants circulating apart from that one. Maybe that variant was reinforced, or maybe there is an agent that is more aggressive," he said.
Cupido and lung specialist Dr
"Beta should make Delta less contagious now. Immunity wanes after three to six months, which is when Gamma will strike," Cupido yesterday said.
The Alpha variant of the virus was initially detected in the
According to the
So far,
IVERMECTIN
Shangula said no doctor has heeded the call of the
"The council has said we invite the doctors to come and make such a trial using ivermectin and a placebo, and then compare and convince us that indeed this one has got a beneficial effect. The invitation is open, it is just that I have not heard of anyone taking it up," Shangula said.
The council believes there is no data to support the use of ivermectin to treat Covid-19.
Agricultural retail giants have been left with empty shelves as Namibians rushed to buy the medicine.
According to the
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