UK Donates Half Mil Doses of COVD-19 Vaccine to Ethiopia

(ENA) The United Kingdom (UK) has donated some 500,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Ethiopia.
British Ambassador to Ethiopia Alex Cameron handed over the vaccines to Health Minister Dr. Leah Tadesse, at the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport on Tuesday.

On the occasion, Dr. Lia said the donated doses will be provided to people who are waiting for the second round of the vaccination campaign.

The vaccine will be provided to people over the age of 35 in Addis Ababa and over the age of 55 in other regions, the Minister said.

Persons over the age of 18 and have other health problems will also be beneficiaries of the vaccine, she added.

She commended the government of UK for the assistance as well as UNICEF for its logistical support to transporting the vaccines to Ethiopia.

According to her, a lot of works have been done to enhance the access of COVID-19 vaccine in Ethiopia.

Noting that COVID-19 cases are increasing in Ethiopia particularly over the past two weeks, she stressed the need for the public to properly adhere to key COVID-19 preventing measures.

The people are also urged to take the utmost care to prevent from the possible third wave of the pandemic.

British Ambassador to Ethiopia Alex Cameron on his part said as Ethiopia is utilizing the vaccines effectively; the UK government extended the support.

According to British Embassy in Addis Ababa, the new donation of AstraZeneca is delivered through COVAX.

The UK donated around 5 million vaccine doses to COVAX. 3 million will go to African countries.

This comes after the £548 million of UK funding to Gavi. This helped COVAX procure doses for 92 lower-income economies – including Ethiopia, the embassy said.

Our latest support will boost Ethiopia’s vaccination drive – bringing the total number of doses delivered to Ethiopia through COVAX to 2.7 million.

The United Kingdom will donate 100 million doses around the by June 2022.

More than 2.25 million Ethiopians have been vaccinated against COVID-19 with the first round of the campaign while over 300,000 people have been vaccinated in the second round of the vaccination so far.

Source: Ethiopia News Agency