The Japanese Government has donated 277 080 doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines to Malawi Government.

The vaccines, which have arrived Saturday through Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe, are part of 10 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to Africa through the United Nation’s (UN) COVAX Facility.

Speaking when handling over the vaccines to Malawi Government, Japanese Ambassador to Malawi Satoshi Iwakiri said the donation is in support of global ambition to vaccinate 70% of the world population by mid 2022.

He said: “It is through this same spirit of resilience that we have committed to supporting our development partners in the Covid fight through global efforts.”

“And also in a bid to promote fair and equitable access to safe and effective vaccines against Covid-19 worldwide.”

Meanwhile, Minister of Health Khumbize Chiponda has reminded all those who received first dose of AstraZeneca to get their second jab.

“These vaccines have come at the right time because we had on AstraZeneca vaccines in the country. We have a lot of people who got the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine and are now supposed to get their second dose,” Chiponda said.

“For instance as of February 24, 2022, the total number of people who have received the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine is/was 1,098,898 and 399,078 of these have received the second dose.”

As at February 25, 2022, 1,098,898 and 399,078 people had received the first dose and second dose of AstraZeneca vaccine respectively, 403,373 have received Johnson and Johnson, and 18,192 and 1,023 people have received first and second doses of Pfizer vaccine respectively.