Covid-19: Ethiopia to Roll Out Third-round Vaccination Campaign

ADDIS ABABA – Health officials in Ethiopia are preparing to launch the third national round of vaccination campaign against COVID-19 next month.

This was revealed during a meeting that reviewed the previous two vaccine campaigns by the ministry, health bureau officials and representatives of regional states and the two city administrations.

The review has dubbed the previous COVID-19 vaccination rounds as successful, which increased the vaccine coverage of 12-year-olds and above to 44%.

The nation launched the COVID 19 vaccination on 13 March 2021 a week after it received its first COVID-19 vaccine doses from the COVAX with a total of 2.2 million doses.

To date, more than 29.4 million people received at least one dose and more than 24.5 people have been fully vaccinated.
COVID-19 pandemic has not yet reached the point where it is no longer a threat despite drops in prevalence and fatalities the ministry stated.

Officials said the third-round vacci drive is expected to improve the community’s immune system.

Efforts are ongoing to increase vaccine uptake to reach a wider proportion of the population, they added.
Some 25 million doses of vaccines will be available for the third round, the ministry said.

Health officials reported Ethiopia’s first Coronavirus case in March 2020. Since then, the country confirmed 470, 730 cases, 455, 722 recoveries and 710, 000 fatalities.