The data were presented this Monday by the National Director of Public Health, Helga Freitas, highlighting that so far there are 21 high yield points in five provinces for the implementation of the country's vaccination plan.
Helga Freitas said that since March 2, the day Angola received its first batch of 624 thousand doses of vaccine from AstraZeneca, under the Covax initiative, 181,578 people have been vaccinated until this Monday.
"In Luanda 124,822 people from risk groups were vaccinated, in Benguela 25,867 people, in Huambo 13,730, in Huíla 7575 and in Cabinda 9604," he informed.
As of the 9th of this month, the vaccination of the most exposed people in the remaining 10 provinces of the country will begin, and in May the second dose of the vaccine reserved for this purpose will be applied.
A total of 47,866 health workers, 63,660 teachers, 26,067 elderly people and people with comorbidities have been vaccinated.
Helga Freitas said that the vaccination with 200,000 doses of donated Chinese vaccines "Sinopharm", started on Saturday, in Chinese citizens, having already been vaccinated until this Monday 1055 people, by trained personnel and under supervision of the Ministry of Health.
"After the vaccination of elderly people we will extend the vaccination to people over 40 years old that is estimated in 6.4 million people, but everything depends on the availability of vaccines that the Angolan Government is doing everything to acquire", she said.
The official stressed that the vaccine is safe and significantly reduces serious cases of the disease, "so it is important that all health professionals and those with greater exposure, adhere to vaccination at this stage" to reduce mortality and morbidity.
For her part, the Minister of Health, Silvia Lutucuta, reported two cases of health professionals who had the opportunity to be vaccinated, in the middle of the vaccination campaign, and died with covid-19, because they did not get the vaccine.
"Any of them died after more than 15 days of the vaccination campaign, the vaccine got there, it was close, they had the opportunity, the deadlines were extended, all the advantages of the vaccine were explained, we are aware that in this AstraZeneca vaccine there was a lot of controversy, but reason came out and it was realized that from the scientific point of view there were no reasons for any suspension, we stood firm," she said.
Silvia Lutucuta, who was answering the question about the prohibition of access to the workplaces of health professionals who have not been vaccinated, stressed the need to safeguard their lives.
"In fact we are analyzing, even at the level of the Multisectoral Commission, we will use all the legal instruments that are available that can help us strongly persuade these professionals to be vaccinated," she said.
