By Tabora Bojang
The director of health services, Dr Mustapha Bittaye has told The Standard that the Medicine Control Agency, the regulatory body for all medical products in The Gambia, has given approval for the use of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in the country.
“We have it all organised and ready, we are now working on the importation of the vaccine following a successful registration and completion of the MCA evaluation process,” Dr Bittaye said.
“We wanted to bring it [vaccine] a long time ago but we had to wait for them [MCA] to approve it which they did yesterday, ” he added.
Dr. Bittaye also disclosed that the Ministry of Health has already devised a comprehensive national programme for vaccination while disclosing that Covid-19 frontline workers, people over 60 years old and those with underlying health conditions would be given priority.
Meanwhile, it has been reported that Senegalese president Macky Sall who last week received 200,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines made by China’s Sinopharm laboratory, has said 10 percent of the vaccine will be given to neighbouring Gambia and Guinea Bisaau as an African solidarity.
Since the confirmation of the first case of Covid-19 in the country, the total number of cases stands at 4,612 with 146 deaths. The country currently has 1 person in hotel quarantine, 377 active cases and a crude case-fatality ratio of 3.1%.
