Malawi gets additional Covid vaccine doses
One hundred thousand more doses of Oxford- AstraZeneca vaccine have arrived in the country from the African Union.
Co-chairperson for the Presidential Taskforce on Covid, Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda, has further advised those that have tested positive for coronavirus to delay the vaccination for six months.
“This is because natural immunity remains available for some time but wanes off by six months,” Kandodo Chiponda said in the Covid update statement released on Saturday.
The taskforce said, by Saturday, the country had surpassed the 100,000 mark on vaccination.
She urged pregnant women and lactating mothers to get vaccinated because the vaccine would protect them from the disease.
Kandodo Chiponda, who is also the Minister of Health, said, although there was no contra-indication on the uptake of alcohol and the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, moderate uptake of alcohol around the time one gets the vaccine could not affect immunity.
“It may be best to abstain for a brief [time] before and after vaccination. Guidance which applies for vaccines is that one should refrain from alcohol three days after each injection,” she said.
President Lazarus Chakwera launched the vaccination exercise on March 11, getting a jab of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to set the ball rolling.
Mathews Kasanda is a journalist who holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from University of Malawi (The Polytechnic).
In 2015, Media Institute of Southern Africa awarded him the Best Print Media Education Journalist of the Year accolade.
He joined Times Group Newsroom in September 2019.
