First phase of vaccination in POM almost complete

By LULU MARK
THE first phase of the Covid-19 vaccination in the National Capital District is nearing completion, says Covid-19 coordinator Dr Steven Yennie.
He told The National yesterday that the first 4,000 doses supplied by the Covax-Facility had been used up.
Now they are using the additional 2,000 doses delivered from Australia last week.
As of Tuesday, 4,500 people had received the first dose of the vaccine.
He said more doses would be needed for the second phase of the rollout.
The 288,000 doses allocated to PNG is expected to cover 3 per cent of the population.
The Covid-19 National Control Centre expects 20 per cent of the population to be vaccinated by the end of the year.
During phase one, vaccines were delivered to selected health facilities in the country where the 3 per cent of the population were to be vaccinated, mostly rural health workers and essential service workers.
Phase two is to cover the remaining17 per cent of the population.
Phase three will include routine immunisation – vaccines kept in refrigerators in health facilities and available to the general population.
Dr Yennie said the vaccine uptake was low among health workers because it was a voluntary exercise. “Business houses and corporate agencies are taking advantage of this opportunity and their staff are getting vaccinated,” he said.
“As more people get vaccinated and advocacy by our team, we expect a good uptake from the frontline workers in the public and private sectors.
“Currently the uptake among health workers is less than 20 per cent but maybe after phase two we will provide better coverage.”