• Booster shot

    Booster shot

    Mozambique’s COVID vaccine roll-out is being given a US$115 million injection.

    The World Bank has approved US$100 million and US$15 million in grants from the International Development Association and the Global Financing Facility respectively, to support its COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response project in the Southern African country.

    According to the bank, the funds will be used to ‘acquire, manage, and deploy COVID-19 vaccines and to strengthen the national health system’s preparedness and capacity, as well as to ensure continuity of essential health services, particularly for women, children, and adolescents’.

    Project funding includes the acquisition of doses and supplies needed for delivery and distribution, as well as vaccine logistics and training of community health workers.

    World Bank senior health economist and project leader Miguel Angel San Joaquin Polo explains that the funding will provide coverage for about 20% of Mozambique’s eligible population. ‘This operation will enable the purchase of approximately 7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, the single-largest contribution for Mozambique’s vaccination efforts thus far.’

    8 June 2021
    Image: Gallo/Getty Images