DILI, 03 july 2021 (TATOLI) – The Inter-Ministerial Commission for the Preparation and Coordination of Implementation of the Vaccination Plan against COVID-19, today, held a meeting to discuss the preparation for purchasing Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for children between the ages of 12 and 17.
“Today, we discuss our preparation to get Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for our children under 17 years of age. So, we talk about our technical preparation, which will be presented to the Council of Ministers,” Health Minister, Odete Maria Freitas Belo told reporters after the meeting at the hall of the Ministry of Social, Solidarity, and Inclusion (MSSI), in Dili, today.
“We talk about Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, freezers for vaccine storage, syringe, and so on,” said Belo.
She added that around 150.000 children between the ages of 12 and 17 are eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine:
“COVAX Facility will support us with more than 100.000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine. These doses will cover half of the eligible children. Therefore, the government will buy more doses to cover the other half of the eligible children to get vaccinated.”
She said the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) had signed an agreement with UNICEF to support Timor-Leste with US$ 6.1 million, which will be used to purchase the Pfizer Covid-19 Vaccine.
‘This money was supposed to buy Covid-19 AstraZeneca Vaccine, but we have proposed to use this money for purchasing the Pfizer vaccine,” said Belo.
In Timor-Leste, of the 754.864 eligible groups, 38.3 percent had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, of which 13.2 percent have also received their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Nelia Borges Rosario
