PRIME Minister Dr Moeketsi Majoro says the country is expecting at least 30 000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines from the Sesiu sa Letšoele le beta poho, a local organisation that was formed to augment the acquisition and roll-out of the national COVID-19 vaccine programme for all sector corporations that make up the fund’s consortium.
health
Oct. 11, 2021
LINEO MABEKEBEKE
3 min read
Lesotho expects 30 000 more doses of Covid vaccine
Prime Minister Dr Moeketsi Majoro
Story highlights
New positive cases drop from 891 to 81 in a week
Cabinet moved country from purple colour code to alert blue
Lesotho, he further showed expects another batch of 150 000 doses of vaccines from the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT), a continental body aimed at securing vaccines to complement initiatives such as COVAX and attain a target immunisation of 60% of Africa’s population.
The trust was launched by the African Union (AU) in a bid to ensure widespread access to COVID-19 vaccines across the continent.
Dr Majoro was addressing the nation on Sunday night on the current state of the pandemic in the country.
This, after Lesotho received over 528 000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines which included 428 000 of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine (J&J) and 100 000 of the Sinopharm vaccine.
About 100 000 doses of the J&J vaccine was received from South Africa on Friday by the Minister of Health, Semano Sekatle on behalf of the Lesotho Government.
“As the country keeps on receiving more vaccines, the importance of vaccination is that; it can keep one from getting and spreading the virus that causes COVID-19, keep one from getting seriously ill and protecting people around them,” Dr Majoro said, appealing to those who have not vaccinated to urgently get their jabs.
Since the inception of the COVID-19 vaccine programme in March, he said the country is now seeing a decrease in patients’ admissions and positive cases.
As a result, he said Cabinet ministers met to discuss the current COVID-19 status and agreed to move from purple colour code to alert Blue colour stage effective from Sunday midnight.
He said new positive cases in a week have dropped from 891 to 81, which made the country to move to a relaxed purple colour code in July.
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Apart from that, he said positivity rate has also dropped to 1.3% from 10% which was the highest percentage since the country was in purple stage.
“Deaths are at three from 18 in a week, while the admitted patients have also decreased from 28% to 6%,” he added.
Although the country has currently vaccinated 428 000 people, about 21% of the population, the premier however, said the number is far from the target of 1.6 million by the end of November.
As of the beginning of November, there are services which Dr Majoro said will not be rendered to those who have not taken COVID-19 vaccines in Lesotho, in public recreational areas, spectators at sports grounds, night clubs and liquor stores among others.
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