PNG joins pandemic vaccine queue

By LULU MARK
THE expression of interest in the Covid-19 vaccine submitted to the Covax Facility by Papua New Guinea has been accepted but it will not arrive immediately and people should continue taking heed of public health measures, an official says.
Covax Facility is a mechanism designed to guarantee rapid, fair and equitable access to the Covid-19 vaccines worldwide and is co-led by Gavi (the vaccine alliance) Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the World Health Organisation.
National Control Centre incident manager Dr Daoni Esorom said it was now on the Government to approve the indemnity clause and a document was before the ministers for Health, Treasury and Finance.
“Right now, we don’t have the case load that will guarantee us getting the vaccine,” he said.
“We are in a queue and countries with a lot of cases such as the United States, India, Brazil and many of the European countries are the ones that are going to access the vaccines first.”