Doc: 3 vaccines to be rolled out under one programme

National

THE Johnson and Johnson (J&J) vaccine that arrived recently will be rolled out soon together with the AstraZeneca and Sinopharm under one vaccination programme, National Pandemic Response deputy controller Dr Daoni Erosom says.
“A total of 93,851 people have been vaccinated as of Aug 10,” he said in a media briefing on Friday.
“So far, there have been no side effects, except for 16 reported mild cases.
“The most important thing is vaccination, and Papua New Guinea’s vaccination figures are very low.
“We run the risk of a massive spike in the number of the delta variant cases if we do not vaccinate more people.”
Dr Erosom said the vaccines in stock at the moment were enough to take care of more than three million people in the first phase of the vaccination programme.
“If we can use up all the available vaccines, it will go a long way for us to get more vaccines so that we can immunise every eligible persons.”
Dr Erosom said the J&J vaccine would be strategically rolled out in the border provinces, persons living with disabilities, people with comorbidities and the elderly.
There have been no new recorded cases and deaths as of Aug 11.
The country’s confirmed cases remain at 17,806 and the death toll at 192.
Dr Erosom said testing remained a major challenge for the country with limited number of tests being conducted. “We have enough test kits, we just need people to come forward because it is only through testing that we can identify more cases,” he said.