U.S. Ambassador to DRC officially hands over a batch of Pfizer vaccines to strengthen vaccination against COVID-19

KINSHASA, SEPTEMBER 27, 2021 - The United States Ambassador to the DRC, Mr. Mike Hammer, officially handed over a batch of Pfizer vaccines to the Deputy Minister of Public Health, Hygiene and Prevention in the presence of the WHO Representative and the UNICEF Deputy Representative. This was done during a ceremony held at the Expanded Programme on Immunization vaccine warehouse in Kinkole.

The 250,320 doses of Pfizer vaccine were donated by the U.S. government to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) through the COVAX mechanism. These doses are in addition to the various types of vaccine previously received in the country.

"The doses donated by the United States will be distributed in the 15 priority provinces where COVID-19 is prevalent, to benefit those most in need, and to rapidly scale up as the next shipment of vaccines arrives," said Katya Marino, UNICEF Deputy Representative.

These new doses of Pfizer vaccine arrived in Kinshasa on Thursday, September 23, and will be sent to vaccination sites in Equateur, Haut-Katanga, Haut-Uélé, Ituri, Kasai, Kasai-Oriental, Kinshasa, Kongo-Central, Kwilu, Lualaba, Maniema, North-Kivu, South-Kivu, South-Ubangi and Tshopo.

During the ceremony, the delegation visited the facilities of the warehouse to get a better idea of the technicality and capacity of the teams involved in the supply chain, not only the cold chain and vaccines but also the logistics.