Somali government has received 108,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine donated by the government of France on Sunday. After the arrival of the doses from France on Sunday, Health Minister Fowzia Abikar said the vaccines were donated by the Government of France through the COVAX Facility. “The Government of France is committed, along with the EU and COVAX partners, to help Somalia bolster vaccination efforts so that additional frontline workers and other high-risk populations in Somalia can be protected from COVID-19,” said Aline Kuster-Menager, the French Ambassador to Somalia.  “This donation is part of a global effort from France: President Macron has pledged to give 60 million doses of the vaccine before the end of 2021.

This is a global pandemic and France is committed to ensuring the equitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine around the world.

If we are to contain the spread of COVID-19, we have to work together.” Since the outbreak began on March 2020, Somalia has reported a total of 15,257 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 including 789 deaths as of 24 July 2021. Owing to low vaccination coverage in the country where less than 1% of the country’s population are fully vaccinated, the country faces the dual challenge of improving the uptake amongst its general population as well as to ensure an equitable and predictable supply of COVID-19 vaccines to support an effective rollout of mass vaccination.    .