Tanzania launches a campaign to boost uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine

Tanzania launched the Effort for Global Vaccine Access (Global VAX) on Wednesday, a 25 million US dollar (about 58 billion TWD) initiative to boost vaccine uptake and access in the country. Furthermore, the program will help the government accomplish its goal of vaccinating 70% of eligible individuals by December of this year, up from the current 15%.

The initiative will specifically ensure that vaccines are available to rural and hard-to-reach populations, improve the capacity of healthcare workers to help immunization programs, and manage vaccine safety, data, and analytics.

The Worldwide VAX initiative is a US government effort to help Tanzania and eleven other Sub-Saharan African countries achieve the global goal of vaccinating 70% of the world's population against COVID-19 by 2022. Dr. Donald Wright, US Ambassador to Tanzania, stated during the opening ceremony at the Mwembe Yanga grounds in Dar es Salaam that Global VAX resources assist Tanzania's COVID-19 immunization efforts.

“We are interested in collaborating with the Tanzanian government, COVAX, and other international and bilateral funders. It builds on President Joe Biden's pledge to administer more than 1.2 billion vaccination doses globally by the end of 2022, and it increases efforts to get immunizations to people who need them." The doctor went on. He stressed that the United States is Tanzania's largest vaccine donor, having supplied roughly five (5) million doses to date with more on the way.

Dr. Wright also stated that the Global VAX will support a number of initiatives planned in collaboration with the Tanzanian government to ensure that doses entering the country are distributed in a timely, safe, and equitable manner "We are reminded that none of us are safe unless we are all safe as we deal with the multiple Covid-19 variants that have infected every country. "We must persevere until everyone who is eligible and capable of receiving the immunization receives it," Ambassador Wright said.

Tanzania has had four waves of the Covid-19 outbreak, according to Minister of Health Ummy Mwalimu, and the government continues to closely monitor the disease's international expansion, particularly in African countries, and tighten management procedures.

"According to the monitoring of COVID-19 statistics in various countries," she explained, "there has been an increase in cases in Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries over the past five weeks, particularly in South Africa, which reported 186,254 new cases versus 47,429 cases in the previous four weeks."

Ms. Mwalimu feels that, given its economic ties with SADC countries, Tanzania should step up efforts to raise immunization rates and implement COVID-19 regulations.

As of May 20, 34,002 Tanzanians had tested positive for Covid-19, with 803 of them dying. According to her, as of May 24, 2022, the country had received and delivered around 13,400,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines from various sources.

The government, according to Ms. Mwalimu, has launched two phases of the Accelerated Community-Based COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy in collaboration with a variety of stakeholders.

"From September 22 to October 14, 2021, the first phase of this campaign raised the use of the Janssen vaccine from 384,000 to 980,000 doses, corresponding to more than 90% efficacy across all available vaccines," she stated.

Furthermore, she noted that the second phase of the campaign increased the rate of vaccine expansion from 16,000 to 64,000 targets each day, with the current daily aim of vaccinating more than 59,774 persons nationally.