Morobe launches Covid vaccination programme

By BRADLEY MARIORI
THE Morobe health authority (PHA) launched its Covid-19 AstraZeneca vaccination yesterday starting with senior health management personnel.
PHA chief executive officer Dr Kipas Binga thanked the Government, World Health Organisation, Unicef and everyone who made it possible for the vaccine to be brought into the country and the province.
Dr Binga said 13,000 vaccines were recieved for its first rollout.
He said frontline health workers from both the Government and private sectors would be vaccinated over the next two to three days.
“We will be rolling out the vaccination programme in two locations in Lae; Angau and Buimo,” he said.
“For districts, it will be in 10 sites.
“The rollout will be based in one health centre per district so people get vaccinated.”
Dr Binga said other frontline workers such as police, Correctional Services personnel, PNG Ports and airport employees would also be vaccinated.
He said the health staff, would be vaccinated within the next two-three days, then they would concentrate on vaccinating the most-at-risk population.
“We will start in the institutions then to the public,” he said.
“We’ve got two months before the vaccines expire and we will look at how much vaccines we will get in the next round.”
PH chairman David Wissink said the sooner people get vaccinated it would control the spread of the Covid-19.