The announcement was made by the Minister of Health, Sílvia Lutucuta, at the end of an ordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers, guided by the Angolan President, João Lourenço, in which the National Plan of Vaccination against covid-19 was approved.
Sílvia Lutucuta said that the preparation of local logistic conditions, namely cold chambers, which are fundamental, is being concluded, foreseeing that by the end of January the situation will be solved.
"On the other hand, we believe, according to the plan sent to us by the Covax Initiative, that as of February we will start receiving vaccines," the minister said.
According to Silvia Lutucuta, the 12 million doses of vaccines for Angola will arrive in stages and are free.
"There is a promise that several doses will arrive and we, according to the risk stratification that will be done, will announce who are the priority people for vaccination," she said.
The National Plan for Vaccination against covid-19 foresees immunization in the first phase of people above 40 years of age, of specific groups - with comorbidity, with high exposure (market vendors, public transport drivers, motorcycle taxi drivers) and with advanced age.
"We plan to vaccinate 95 percent of this group (people with comorbidity, very exposed people and people who are old). People over 60 have only 2.5 percent of our population. As we have 12 million doses, we can vaccinate about 6 million people, we will lower our range to people 40 years old," explained the minister.
The second stage, continued Silvia Lutucuta, will cover people from 20 to 39 years old, and for those under 20, it should probably happen in 2022.
The Health portfolio holder stressed that the cost of manufacturing the vaccine stipulated by the Covax Initiative is seven dollars per dose, but for Angola they are "a donation, it is a non-refundable investment of the Covax Initiative and they will finance the vaccines.
According to the government, the funds from the General State Budget will be for operational costs and strengthening of the cold chain, "because it is necessary to make a great mobilization of resources.
"The first phase will cost more than 100 million dollars, of which more than 90 million will come from the Covax Initiative, which is the cost of the vaccine. But it is important to say that the vaccine here is free for everyone," he said.
At the national level, said the minister, work is underway to prepare conditions for the vaccination campaigns - training of personnel, preparation of the logistics chain.
"And it is in this context that the multisectoral commission will coordinate at the highest level the vaccination campaign or National Plan of Vaccination against covid-19 and we will have intervention from various sectors, with a national scope," she stressed.
"We are already working on the cold chains, we are improving our vaccine depot, which is being built by now and which will be completed in January to have conditions and we are also making the purchase of cold rooms to put in the various provinces," he added.
Angola has so far registered a total of 16,644 infections, 387 deaths and 9592 recovered patients.
