The second national vaccination campaign against COVID-19 was officially launched on Friday, December 10, 2021 in Abidjan, with the aim of administering at least 2.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines of all types to people aged 18 years and above who are not yet vaccinated or who have received a first dose.
Dr. Charles Koffi Aka, the Director of Cabinet of the Minister of Health, Public Hygiene and Universal Health Coverage chaired the launch ceremony for the campaign with a goal to reduce morbidity and mortality related to this disease which poses a real threat to the population and the economy of countries, as it causes many cases of hospitalization and death around the world.
Dr. Charles Koffi Aka reminded those in attendance of the ceremony that Côte d’Ivoire introduced the first vaccine against Covid-19 on March 1, 2021. And as of December 7, 2021, a total of 4,718,000 doses of vaccine have been administered. These results are still far from the national target of 70%, which is just over 14.5 million people aged 18 and over. This means that a large part of the target population is yet to be vaccinated.
After the launch, the communication department of the Ministry of Health received support from Farm Radio International’s partner radio stations in Côte d’Ivoire.
For this purpose, Farm Radio International has asked our network of radio partners in Côte d’Ivoire for a strong involvement in the campaign in order to inform a large part of the population in urban and rural areas. Thus, several local radio stations in Abidjan – Radio Arc en Ciel d’Abobo, Radio Fraternité Yopougon, Radio Alhobé Bingerville, etc. – and in the interior of the country – Radio Média + Bouaké, Alliance FM Bouaké, Radio Phénix Bouaké, Radio Satellite Korhogo, Radio Soleil + San Pedro, Radio La Voix de la Nawa and Radio Zanzan – have, like the national radio stations, carried out awareness programs with specialists from the Ministry of Health on the need for full vaccination and the respect of preventive measures once vaccinated.
In the momentum of these initiatives, we noticed that from December 15, 2021, there is an emergence of Omicron variant. Out of 134 samples tested, 78 samples were positive for the Omicron variant which is much more transmissible, but less virulent.
On January 04, 2022, during the exchange forum organized by the Center for Information and Government Communication (CICG), Professor Mireille Dosso, Director of the Pasteur Institute of Côte d’Ivoire, explained that even if to date, no death due to the different vaccines has been noted in Côte d’Ivoire, it is important to note that 9,274 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded in December 2021, compared to 427 cases in November and 1,044 in October 2021.
As of January 8, 2022, Côte d’Ivoire had 76,732 confirmed cases of Covid-19 out of more than 1,243,063, i.e., a general rate of positivity of 5.8%, including 65,721 cured cases and 733 deaths, and 10,278 active cases.
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