MALAWI. Zomba: Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera and Vice president Saulos Chilima were vaccinated with doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on March 11.
Along with Chakwera, other top senior government and religious officials received their doses in the eastern city of Zomba. Former president Joyce Banda and her husband Richard, a retired Chief Justice, Head of the Roman Catholic Church Archbishop Thomas Msusa, Vincent Nundwe and George Kainja (heads of the army and police respectively), and traditional leaders were also vaccinated.
The Malawi president assured his citizens about the safety of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
“As a show of faith, i and others have volunteered to be the first ones to be vaccinated. This is to show that the vaccine is safe,” he said.
Around 1.4 million doses of vaccines expected to be administered were obtained through COVAX in Malawi.
An additional 50,000 vaccines were sent by the Indian government and the African Union sent another 100,000 doses to the southern African country.
Read Also: Malawi Acquires Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine
AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine
The COVID-19 vaccine in Malawi is available at $4 per dose. According to the reports, some side effects of the vaccine have also been experienced like, headache, tiredness, chills, muscle ache, and fever among others.
The vaccine has an efficacy rate of 62 percent and is administered in two phases. The vaccine starts providing protection 15 days after the second shot is administered.
Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, Malawi has seen some of its top government officials contracting and dying of the pandemic.
Recently, Speaker of Parliament Catherine Gotani Hara announced her recovery from COVID-19. Her deputy Madalitso Kazombo also got cured of the same.
On March 11, Malawi had 59 new cases with only a single COVID-19 death.
Read Also: Malawi: A State Of National Disaster
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