Myanmar launches COVID-19 vaccination drive following shipment from India

Myanmar on January 26 launched a COVID-19 vaccination drive after country received 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca vials in first shipment under India’s ‘vaccine diplomacy’. Souast Asian country w plans to iculate 750,000 people in first quarter of 2021. country prioritized health workers to get jab first, followed by high-risk vulnerable population, according to brocaster Myanmar Times.

government plans to iculate 40 per cent of its population by end of 2021, newspaper quoted Dr. Khin Khin Gyi, Myanmar’s director of Contagious Disease Prevention and Erication Division as saying. Under agreement with India, Myanmar purchased vaccines manufactured by World’s largest Serum Institute of India for $5 each vial. shipment touched down in Yangon on January 22. 

Last week, Myanmar’s leer, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, anunced at press conference that Oxford University and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca co-manufactured vaccine produced under license by India will be ministered across hospitals in different cities, starting from those with a significant surge of infections. At a hospital in capital Naypyitaw, where vaccination drive started, Suu Kyi participated and observed campaign as she warned healthcare workers about vials saying that government lacked supplies it needed and authorities h to be careful. 75-year-old leer meanwhile is expected to get iculated Thursday, according to CNA report. 

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[Indian Embassy in Myanmar in front of vaccine shipment. Credit: AP]

[Myanmar leer Aung San Suu Kyi inspects and watches vaccination processes to health workers at a hospital. Credit: AP]

Healthcare workers inspect side-effects

Myanmar’s government started vaccinating about 100 personnel on Wednesday at Ayeyarwdy COVID-19 Treatment Center in Yangon, which was converted into a makeshift hospital in September with 1,000 beds. While healthcare workers have been instructed to monitor symptoms and post-iculation effects on health, a health worker at center Myo t Naing told AP that thus far, re were complaints about side effects of vaccines.“So far I feel thing. It is all good,” Naing said. “I feel very pleased and happy,” AP quoted ar 19-year-old volunteer Htet Aung Lin who received vaccine at center as saying. 

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(Im Credit: AP)