PRESDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania is expected to lead her nation in rolling out the administration of Johnson & Jonhson COVID-19 vaccine in the country formerly notorious for denying the efficiency and efficacy of the jab.
Samia, along with ministers, will be vaccinated in Dar es Salaam, the economic capital city of the East African country. After that, the vaccination campaign will begin with health care workers.
SAUTI KUBWA was the first media outlet to report on the arrival of Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine first consignment of 1 million doses received last week under the COVAX Facility assisted by the USA to Tanzania.
Apart from that assistance, Tanzania has placed a “massive” order with the African Union for COVID-19 vaccines, marking a turnaround for the country’s government, which previously made no effort to secure doses and whose recently deceased former president repeatedly belittled the science behind the coronavirus.
The AU has secured 400 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson one-dose COVID-19 vaccine for purchase by African nations, which it will start shipping to countries very soon. Tanzania is one of the biggest purchasers of those vaccines, said Strive Masiyiwa, special envoy to the AU, during a press conference last Thursday — though he didn’t name the exact number of doses the country had ordered.
