The Ministerial Vaccine Taskforce has successfully completed the last leg of its visits to the Southern region in the Northern Province from 27th-30th March 2023.
During their supervisory provincial visits around the country, they have indentified both challenges and success stories in terms of Routine Immunisation and Covid-19 Vaccination within the communities.
Even though they have found that there was a drop in routine immunisation when the covid-19 vaccination was first rolled out, Saiho Village in the Northern province has seen improvement in both the routine vaccination and the covid-19 vaccination statistics over the last 2 years.
This is due to consistent advocacy and community awareness done in the area.
Speaking to members of the Ministerial Vaccine Taskforce in Saiho village, Officer in Charge (OIC) Mr Donald Salapwi said all it took was continuous positive advocacy about the COVID-19 vaccine among both men and women that led to the community improving its vaccine rates.
“We are proud of the progress we have with our routine immunisation and COVID-19 vaccination here at Saiho. Many young people are voluntarily coming to the clinic to get vaccinated.”
“Only yesterday we witnessed 20 young men come in for COVID-19 vaccination.”
“Even when mothers bring in their babies for immunisation, we advocate to them and surely, that fear and hesitancy has lessened as we see mothers bringing their babies for immunisation as well as being vaccinated themselves against COVID-19.”
Protecting ourselves from COVID-19 takes a collective effort and the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines is the best way to ensure the protection of one’s health and that of their families.