UPDATE: To wrap up their Southern Region supervisory visit the Ministerial Vaccine Taskforce team successfully completed the last leg of their visit in Northern Province from the 27th-30th March 2023.
Again, the intention of their visit is to identify both challenges and success stories in Routine Immunization and COVID-19 vaccination within communities.
According to a recent statement, while it was commonly found in most provinces that there was a slight drop in routine immunization when COVID-19 vaccination first rolled out, for one community from Saiho village in the Sohe District of Northern province, consistent advocacy and community awareness has seen it improve both its routine immunization and COVID-19 vaccination statistics for the last two years.
While it was commonly found in most provinces that there was a slight drop in routine immunization when COVID-19 vaccination first rolled out, for one community from Saiho village in the Sohe District of Northern province, consistent advocacy and community awareness has seen it improve both its routine immunization and COVID-19 vaccination statistics for the last two years. Speaking to members of the Ministerial Vaccine Taskforce in Saiho village, Officer in Charge (OIC) Donald Salapwi, said all it took was continuous positive advocacy about the COVID-19 vaccine among both men and women that led to the community improving its vaccine rates.
“We are proud of the progress we have with our routine immunization and COVID-19 vaccination here at Saiho. Many young people are voluntarily coming to the clinic to get vaccinated. Only yesterday we witnessed 20 young men come in for COVID-19 vaccination”, said Mr Salapwi.
“Even when mothers bring in their babies for immunization, we advocate to them and surely, that fear and hesitancy has lessened as we see mothers bringing their babies for immunization as well as being vaccinated themselves against COVID-19”, he further stated.
