08 May 2022

 The Ministry of Health and Wellness COVID-19 Response manager, Dr Kutlo Macheke says the ministry has  developed a new vaccination plan covering Gaborone, Francistown, Kweneng and Selebi Phikwe health districts.
Speaking during closure of a four-day Africa Centre for Disease Control (CDC) meeting in Lobatse on Friday, Dr Macheke said the four districts were lagging behind in vaccines uptake.
He said the new plan was therefore, part of a strategy to increase uptake of vaccines in the four districts using the approximately P10 million funding from Africa CDC Saving Lives and Livelihoods programme.
“The Africa CDC Saving Lives and Livelihoods is an effort by African Union and Africa CDC to ensure that African countries are capacitated and resourced to drive their COVID-19 vaccination programmes. The initiative was developed after realisation that many African countries were lagging behind in the vaccination against COVID-19," said Dr Macheke.
He said it was now Botswana’s turn to be assisted through the initiative, adding that the ministry was however required to produce a micro plan that showed the activities the funds would be used for.
He said the four-day meeting in Lobatse therefore decided to use the funds to intensify vaccine uptake in the four health districts of Francistown, Gaborone, Kweneng and Selebi Phikwe.
He said since Africa CDC did  not deal directly with governments, implementation of the plan would be carried out through partners such as Red Cross, Amref Health Africa, United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
“The funds will be given to these partner organisations to drive the plan. We expect to start implementing the plan next month after its approval by Africa CDC,” explained Dr Macheke.
He said the partners would among other things assist with Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) in order to attract people to take the vaccines, provision of resources for additional vaccination sites, and provision of mobile vaccination services.
He further said the partners would carry out research of how to improve the vaccination programme.
Africa CDC representative, Mr Yaya Kandeh said it was important for African countries to develop comprehensive plans together with implementation partner organisations on the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr Boniface Hallbano from implementing partner Amref, thanked the Africa CDC for coming up with the Saving Lives and Livelihoods initiative.
He said the initiative would assist to ensure that more people got vaccinated against COVID-19. ENDS