Malawi to receive Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Saturday

The Ministry of Health says 302,400 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will arrive in the country on Saturday, August 7.

Minister of Health Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda noted that the vaccine was expected to arrive on Friday but the date has now changed.

J&J is a single dose vaccine and it will be given to those that have not received any type of Covid-19 vaccine.

Vaccination exercise using the J&J vaccine will be rolled out next week and it is expected that over 300,000 will be vaccinated.

The country is also expected to receive 119,200 doses of AstraZeneca within the next 2 weeks, 160,800 doses of AstraZeneca arriving mid-August, 360, 000 doses of AstraZeneca arriving end of August or early September and 372, 000 doses of Pfizer vaccine arriving Q3 (before the end of September).

“The Government is working tirelessly to ensure continuous availability of COVID-19 vaccine in the country. I would like to thank those that made a good decision to get vaccinated; this is commendable as we are collectively fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. It has to be noted that the COVID-19 vaccine helps in reducing the risk of developing the severe disease when one contracts COVID-19 and also reduces the risk of hospitalization and deaths due to COVID-19,” said Chiponda.

Malawi started its vaccination programme in March and so far, 456,126 and 142,178 people have received the first dose and second dose respectively.

However, over the past 24 hours, 363 people received the first dose and 183 the second dose.