US donates 124,000 more Pfizer vaccine doses to Namibia
The second consignment of 124,000 doses of the Pfizer Bio-NTech COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Namibia on 22 October as part of a donation by the U.S. government.
This is in addition to the first consignment of 100,620 doses donated in September this year. U.S. Embassy’s Chargé d’Affaires, Jessica Long, speaking at the handover ceremony on 27 October said more Pfizer Bio-NTech vaccines will be coming from the U.S.
Long also announced that as of Monday 25 October, the U.S Centre for Disease Control (CDC) lowered its travel health notice for Namibia from 3 (high) to 2 (moderate) and that the U.S. Department of State improved Namibia’s ranking from 3 (reconsider travel) to 2 (exercise increased caution).
“This has been a very difficult year for the people of Namibia, but things are looking up. The arrival of these safe and effective vaccines is one of the factors that is helping to make things easier, and to help life to get back to normal again,” Long said.
These vaccines are part of 200 million vaccine doses the United States has donated worldwide to date. Working together with COVAX, WHO, UNICEF, and partner countries, the United States committed to donating the 1.1 billion vaccine doses globally.
U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires, Jessica Long, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, and the Minister of Health and Social Services, Dr Kalumbi Shangula at the handover ceremony in Windhoek. (U.S. Embassy Namibia).
