By Aruna Turay
Reports reaching this medium have it that Sierra Leone’s COVID-19 Vaccination Cards are currently being sold in some parts of the country for Five Hundred Thousand Leones (Le500,000).
According to sources, following the press statement issued by NaCOVERC banning all non-vaccinated persons from entering government’s institutions including MDAs, the urge for people to get the Vaccination Card by all cost, without being vaccinated increased.
Therefore, people have resulted into going through the back doors, using all corrupt means to get the Vaccination Card with the help of other corrupt government health workers selling the Cards to them.
Reports say one reason why people are being afraid to take the vaccine is the issue relating to the recent unfortunate death of a healthcare worker at the Cottage Hospital in Freetown past weekend, coupled with people associating severe side effects to the vaccine administration.
Since the introduction of COVID-19 Vaccines in Sierra Leone on March 15th, over 108,000 doses have been administered across the country.
Despite the ministry has stated that available data shows that the COVID-19 vaccines being rolled-out in Sierra Leone are safe and effective, the level of denial on people to take the Vaccine keeps growing day by day.
According to the ministry, Sierra Leone’s current vaccine coverage is less than 2% of the country’s population of over 7 million people.
All attempts to reach the Ministry of Health and Sanitation to respond to some concerns including if there is any mechanism to prove the rightful owner of a Card, proved futile on to press time last night.
Dr. Tom Sesay, Dr. Tom Sesay, Programme Manager, EPI, Ministry of Health and Sanitation was reached by this writer but could not confirm or deny the allegation of Vaccination Cards being sold or not as according to him he was on a meeting and couldn’t comment.
However, this medium stands ready to publish the side of the ministry would it want to speak to AYV newspaper at their will.
Meanwhile, the National COVID-9 Emergency Response Center (NACOVERC) yesterday confirmed that the Delta Variant of Coronavirus has been found in Sierra Leone and that this variant spreads more easily and makes more people sick.
This, the Centre states, is likely leading to the rapidly growing number of people getting sick and dying from the virus and that in addition to hand washing, face masks and physical distancing for prevention, people now also have Coronavirus Maklates which help protect them from serious sickness.
NaCOVERC further warned that some social media posts warning of death and other serious side effects after taking coronavirus maklatesare often misleading by claiming these events are caused by the maklate.
“The government takes any potential side effect of the maklate seriously and is investigating all reported events to know whether they are actually caused by the coronavirus maklate.
Based onavailable information to date, serious side effects from coronavirus maklates are extremely rare. If you feel sick past the typical minor side effects after taking any maklate, or if your symptoms have not gone away after three days, call 117 or 099117117 or contact a healthcare worker”.
