- Vaccination programme expected to be completed by Christmas
- Frontline workers and vulnerable groups to take the first jab
- Business staff second on the que
- General population last to take the vaccine
- Vaccination exercise to take an estimated 14 weeks.
The minister of Health and wellness- Honorable Dr. Edwin Dikoloti has once again came before the nation to impart some ray of hope to the hopeless nation of Botswana regarding the Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) vaccine. While a number of Southern African Countries had already received their first batches of the vaccine, with South Africa having already got another batch of a different vaccine, Dikoloti says Botswana’s vaccine is expected to arrive “by the end of February or the beginning of March 2021”.
According to Dr. Dikoloti after the first batch, the following round from African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) is expected to arrive between April and December 2021. “We wish to finish the vaccination program before the end of this year. In other words, we have invested on a number of platforms, and we hope we will be done with the program before this year’s Christmas.” He asserted.
The minister says the rollout plan will be done in phases which the start of the subsequent will not wait for the preceding to complete before commencing. The phases as outlined by the minister will be as follows;
Phase 1: Will be focused on frontline workers like nurses, doctors, police officers, soldiers and others. The phase will also include vulnerable groups like the elderly, infants and those with particular illnesses.
Phase 2: The target here will be the business staff. The aim is to give them immunity so that they can be able to recover the economy with no setbacks.
Phase 3: The last phase- will be aimed at vaccinating the remaining population. According to the minister, the plan is to vaccinate every Motswana, even those who are aboard.
Dikoloti says Inter-Agency Coordination Committee (ICC)- A committee formed by staff from WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, USAID, UB and BoMRA, has prepared the program focusing on coordination, handling, risk communication, and monitoring & evaluation.
The minister further said that a sum of one hundred and sixty-four million pula (P164 million) has been set aside for the vaccination program. These include getting everything that is needed like availing resources, conveying information and waste management.
