Seychelles receives 39,807 doses of Pfizer vaccine from US government |18 December 2021
Seychelles has received 39,807 doses of Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine from the government and the people of the United States of America (US).
The consignment arrived early yesterday morning on board an Emirates Airline flight from Dubai through coordinated efforts between the US government, COVAK and the African Union.
It is the second consignment of Pfizer vaccine donated to Seychelles by the government and people of the US. The first consignment which arrived in September consisted of 35,100 doses of the vaccine.
It was Judes Debaere, chargée d’affaires, US embassy for Mauritius and Seychelles, who, on behalf of the US government, handed over the consignment of the vaccine to the chief executive of the Health Care Agency, Dr Danny Louange, at the Seychelles International Airport.
Present were representatives of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Tourism and of the US embassy.
Ms Debaere said that the United States is delivering on its promise to serve as an arsenal of vaccines for the world and has successfully donated and delivered more than 275 million Covid-19 vaccines to 110 countries so far, including 74,880 doses of vaccine to our country.
“Safe and effective vaccines are the best way to control this pandemic. As Seychelles has seen a drop in Covid-19 cases, the US government and the US embassy are proud to support the country in its fight against the virus,” she added.
Quoting President Joe Bidden, she stated: “The United States is committed to bringing the same urgency to international vaccination efforts that we have demonstrated at home”, adding that the people in the US are sharing these vaccines to save lives and to lead the world in bringing an end to the pandemic.
“The Seychelles has been a leader in vaccination from the beginning of the pandemic and I’m confident that this donation will only expand upon that success,” the chargée d’affaires said.
She noted that the donation also underscores the continued coordination between the United States and Seychelles, the shared commitment to democratic values, and to the strong bilateral relationship.
“We are hopeful that with continued cooperation in this fight, we will soon put this pandemic behind us,” Ms Debaere said.
On behalf of the government and people of Seychelles, Dr Louange thanked the government and people of the United States of America for the generous donation.
“It is a very important donation for us. It is the second batch of Pfizer vaccine and the first batch has proved that it has helped us a lot,” the doctor said.
He stated that the entire first batch is finished through the vaccination of adolescents and to other people as third dose boosters. He added that the new consignment will be used to continue with the third dose vaccination campaign.
Dr Louange noted that 20,000 adults have been vaccinated with a third dose while 50,000 more need to take their booster dose.
“About 10,000 to 15,000 people have not taken any vaccine and that will cater for them as well,” Dr Louange added.
He remarked that by world experience, very few people who have taken the third dose of either Pfizer or Sinopharm end up in isolation treatment centres with severe or critical conditions and even death.
He noted that only one person who had taken a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine has died from Covid-19 but that person had very advanced medical conditions.
“For us the Pfizer vaccine is safe and it will be a very important tool for us to control Covid-19,” the doctor said.
Dr Louange later said that the new batch of Pfizer vaccine will add to the ministry’s 40,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines to support their booster dose campaign.
He said that details for the vaccine roll-out for the third dose will be made available soon.
The accompanying photographs show the handover of the vaccine yesterday morning at the airport.
Text & photos by Patrick Joubert
