Health Minister Dr. Lia thanks U.S. for Vaccines Donation
ADDIS ABABA – Health Minister Dr. Lia Tadesse has thanked the Government of United states for donating Covid-19 vaccines to Ethiopia.
The 1.2 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine donated by the US arrived in Addis Ababa on Monday.
“We highly appreciate the donation of additional 1.2 Million doses of Covid Vaccine by the US,” Dr. Lia said in a message posted on twitter late Wednesday.
Apart from this week’s donation, the Ministry of Health received 453,600 doses of J&J vaccines on July 19 via Covax facility – a UN-backed global facility to ensure effective and equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines.
“Ethiopia will continue to make every effort to expand access to Covid-19 vaccines & fight the pandemic,” she said. “We also thank the Covax facility and UNICEF”.
The US embassy in Addis Ababa said the newly donated vaccines is part its a global to bring an end to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We can only defeat Covid-19 and resume economic progress by building and sustaining our partnerships,” says the Embassy. “This delivery is another step in ending the global pandemic and building a world that is safer and more secure against the threat of infectious disease.”
Ethiopia confirmed its first Coronavirus case on March 13, last year. Since then, it has confirmed over 179, 153 cases and more than 4, 400 deaths.
As part of a response to the pandemic, its health officials launched a vaccination campaign on March 13 – a week after the country received 2.2 million AstraZeneca vaccines from the COVAX Facility.
The ministry provided more than 2.25 million Covid-19 vaccine doses. Mostly AstraZeneca, provided to Ethiopians as of Wednesday evening.
Apart from J&J, AstraZeneca, health officials are also offering the Sinopharm vaccine after the country received 500, 000.
Featured Image: The 1,2mln doses of COVID-19 vaccines donated by the United States being offloaded at the Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Supply Agency (EPSA) on August 3,2021. [Photo US embassy]