Minister of Health, Population and Hospital Reform, Professor Abderrahmane Benbouzid, unveiled that Algeria will receive 200000 doses of the Chinese vaccine, as well as 7000000 to 800000 doses of vaccines against Coronavirus through COVAX system by the end of the current month.
Speaking during a parliamentary day devoted to “the pandemic in Algeria and Covid-19 vaccination strategy” organized by Health, Social Affairs, Labor and National Solidarity commission of the Senate on Tuesday in Algiers and with the participation of the President of the Senate (Upper House of the Parliament) Salah Goujil, Algeria Health Minister confirmed that “Algeria will receive 200000 doses of the Chinese vaccine and between 7000000 and 800000 doses of the vaccine against CoronaVirus through COVAX system and they are waiting for other batches to come later”.
The minister explained that “the President of the Republic, Mr. Abdelmajid Tebboune, has fulfilled his promise to bring vaccine in January 2021,” calling on citizens to “vaccinate in order to return to normal life”.
On the other hand, Health Minister urged the media and social partners to cooperate with his department in order to raise awareness of citizens of the importance of vaccination, underlining that effective social mobilization is the most important step to ensure the success of the vaccination campaign against Covid-19.
Ms. Ouahiba Hadjoudj, Director of Pharmacy and Medical Equipment at the Ministry of Health, Population and Hospital Reform declared that Algeria will receive 9 million doses of vaccine by the end of next April.
During the parliamentary day, Ms Ouahiba Hadjoudji gave explanation on all the stages of undertaken negotiations with different laboratories, whether inside or outside the country, that led to Algeria vaccines rations acquisition from several laboratories, stressing that “no country can purchase its parts of the vaccine from a single laboratory due to a robust global demand”.
Director General of Pasteur Institute, Dr. Fouzi Derar, explained that the purchased vaccines were subject to the recommendations of the Scientific Council and, as he emphasized, “meet all norms and standards in terms of health safety and effectiveness.”
The General Directorate of Prevention and Promotion of Health, Dr Djamel Fourar, presented the ministry strategic plan related to the vaccination campaign since last January, in accordance with the instructions of the President of the Republic, from a digital platform to follow the campaign process across all national territory while ensuring a fair distribution between all regions according to density population for each region.
Fourar referred to the scenarios set by the Ministry to enable all targeted groups to get vaccines, with the aim of covering 70 percent of the population over a year in order to break the chain of transmission and achieve the success of the campaign.
The General Director of Prevention and Promotion of Health ended by calling on all actors in the field to mobilize citizens and urge them to vaccinate in order to gain the confidence of people and put an end to some sceptics about this vaccine who spread false information through social networks.
