The Government of Japan supports safe delivery of vaccines in Malawi
Lilongwe, 16 December 2021 The Government of Japan, through UNICEF has donated cold chain equipment to the Government of Malawi to support COVID-19 vaccination in the country. The equipment is worth about US$725,000 (just over 595 million kwacha). It comprises of a walk-in cooler, ice-lined refrigerators, 460 vaccine carriers, 100 cold boxes, 18 remote temperature monitoring devices, and maintenance toolkits. The supplies will also assist Ministry of Health to safely transport COVID-19 vaccines to people in the remotest areas of the country.
The Minister of Health, Honourable Khumbize Kandodo said, “COVID-19 has placed a heavy burden on essential healthcare and social services in Malawi. We are grateful for the support from the Government of Japan through UNICEF, which will go a long way in equipping the Ministry of Health with essential supplies in the fight against COVID-19.”
Handing over the equipment at the Ministry of Health today, Japanese Ambassador to Malawi, His Excellency Satoshi Iwakiri, said “with the emergence of the Omicron variant, this support is timely to accelerate vaccinations, and secure the storage of vaccines across the country. I strongly believe this cold chain assistance is in line with the goal to achieve vaccine equity. No one is safe until everyone is safe.”
So far, approximately 1 million people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in Malawi. The Ministry of Health also launched the COVID-19 express vaccination exercise to increase the vaccine uptake at community-level.
UNICEF Malawi Country Representative of UNICEF Malawi, Rudolf Schwenk added, “The generous support from the Government of Japan comes at the right time when the country is moving rapidly towards vaccinating its population against COVID-19. When health workers are provided with the proper equipment to discharge their duties, everyone benefits. The more capacity we have to safely store vaccines, the better positioned we are to vaccinate everyone.”
UNICEF, together with its partners, will continue to support the Government in the procurement and supply of vaccines and immunization supplies.
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