By MAIMBO MWEEMBA
Ministry of Health says yesterday they administered a total of 697 doses of the second jab of the AstraZeneca.
Health permanent secretary for technical services Kennedy Malama says this includes Zambian citizens who received their AstraZeneca dose outside the country and are due for their second dose, provided evidence of their first dose is shown.
Dr Malama said that government has continued to assure members of the public that it has secured additional vaccines for those yet to receive their first dose.
Dr Malama said that the vaccines will be made available at the earliest possible opportunity.
“The roll out of the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine is on course, with Lusaka, Copperbelt and Muchinga provinces now administering the vaccines in the set up sites. Lusaka province currently has thirty-five fixed vaccination sites as well as a number of mobile teams of vaccinators. The full list is available on our websites and social media pages and will be updated accordingly as more sites are set up,” he said.
Dr Malama said that the ministry has received support for oxygen, PPEs, testing kits from Germany through UNICEF.
“Sadly in the last 24 hours, we recorded 2,595 new confirmed Covid-19 cases out of 11,059 tests conducted bringing the cumulative number of confirmed cases recorded to date to 143,215. We also recorded 60 new Covid-19 deaths, bringing the total cumulative number of Covid-19 related at 1,915, with 256 new admissions recorded in the last 24 hours,” he said.
