As the country expects to receive 302,400 new brand of Covid-19 vaccine, Jonson and Jonson (J&J), on Saturday, the Ministry of health has assured the nation that the effectiveness and safety of all types of vaccines that the country has recommended to administer is the same.

The assurance has been made during a media orientation meeting which was organised by the ministry in Blantyre through the Blantyre District Health Office.

The meeting was aimed at informing journalists on the new consignments of Covid-19 vaccine to be received in the country.

In his remarks spokesperson in the Ministry of Health, Adrian Chikumbe, said although J&J vaccine is recommended to be administered once as compared to Astrazeneca, which is recommended for two jabs, but the effectiveness is the same.

Chikumbe said: “All these vaccines have been certified as being effective and safe to be administered to people here in Malawi and they work in a similar manner.”

However Chikumbe has reminded people that the vaccines are not supposed to be mixed.

He said each person is supposed to get one brand of vaccine and therefore those who already received Astrazeneca are exempted from getting J&J jab.

The country is also expected to receive 119,200 doses of Astrazeneca in the next two weeks, 160,800 doses mid-August and 360, 000 doses early September.

Meanwhile 463,236 people have received the first dose of Astrazeneca vaccine while a total of 158,982 people have got the second jab.