Guinea-Bissau starts a campaign to try to vaccinate 70% of the population

The campaign, which should have occurred in 2022, will be the third to be launched by the Guinean Ministry of Health since the covid-19 pandemic was officially declared in Guinea-Bissau in March 2020.

According to Dionísio Cumbà, with the two campaigns already carried out in 2022, 52% of the target population, people over 18 years old, have been vaccinated.

“The goal here is continuity so that we can reach the highest level of immunization of our population,” the Health Minister told Lusa on the sidelines of the campaign opening that should run until the 29th of this month.

The government had difficulties restarting the vaccination campaign against covid-19 in 2022 due to the lack of payment for technicians who worked in the two operations, a situation that was overcome with the intervention of the World Bank, pointed out the Guinean governor.

Dionísio Cumbà stressed that after the campaign started today, the vaccination against the new coronavirus in Guinea-Bissau will become a routine activity “as with other vaccines.

The Health Minister appealed to Guineans who profess the Islamic religion, who should start the period of fasting from March 23, to present themselves at the vaccination posts, stressing that the immunization does not put into question the religious precepts.

In Guinea-Bissau, it is common to hear arguments from people who refuse to receive medicines or vaccines while observing religious fasting.

Dionísio Cumbà said he had discussed with the President of the Republic, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, of Muslim confession the fact that the vaccination campaign against covid-19 coincides with the Ramadan period.

During that period, which this year runs from March 23 to April 23, Muslims are not allowed to eat, drink liquids, smoke, or have sexual relations from sunrise to sunset.

Many believe it is also forbidden to receive vaccinations.

“I discussed this with the President of the Republic and asked for his intervention to sensitize also the Muslim community to say that vaccination has nothing to do with fasting, that the person who is (observing) the fast can get vaccinated without any problem, there is no contraindication,” stressed the Guinean Health Minister.

A religious leader, Imam Siradjo Bari, who was representing the Muslim community, attended the launch of the campaign in the square of the Bissau City Hall in front of the Ministry of Public Health and appealed to the people of his religion to accept to receive the vaccines because “they are not a health hazard”, he said.

With information from Lusa