Vanuatu welcomes the arrival of 20,400 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine supplied through the COVAX Facility .
This is the first lot of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines received by the country. Moderna would be the fourth vaccine to be used in Vanuatu, apart from AstraZeneca, Sinopharm and the single-shot Johnson and Johnson (J&J) vaccines.
“We are grateful to the COVAX Facility for this generous donation of the Moderna vaccines” Minister of Health Hon. Bruno Leingkone said. “This will greatly support the ongoing rollout of Vanuatu’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign and help us to reach the national target”.
For now, the Moderna Vaccine will be used as booster doses in the ongoing vaccination efforts by the Ministry of Health.
Efforts and momentum to increase COVID-19 vaccine coverage amongst the high-risk groups must be stepped up. This is particularly important amongst the at-risk population, including pregnant women, people aged 55 and above and people with existing conditions due to current low coverage. These populations are at higher risk of becoming severely ill with COVID- 19, hospitalisation, and in some cases, death.
The Ministry of Health will administer the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to the adolescent population at a later date. More information will be communicated on adolescent COVID-19 vaccines at a later stage.
For the two dose vaccines currently available in Vanuatu, the Ministry of Health continues to recommend that people receive the same type of COVID-19 vaccine for both first and second doses.
This means that a person who received the AstraZeneca vaccine as the first dose, the person would get the same vaccine for the second dose. The same applies to the Sinopharm COVID- 19 vaccines.
The arrival of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccines is timely when COVID-19 cases continue to increase in the communities on Efate and Santo Islands.
The Ministry of Health continues to emphasise the importance of completing the primary course of a COVID-19 vaccine and getting a booster dose for protection from severe illness, hospitalization and death.
As vaccines continue to be rolled out across Vanuatu, they should complement, and not replace, proven public health measures. People in Vanuatu must continue to apply tried-andtested measures to successfully prevent and control transmission, such as physical distancing, masks, ventilation and hand hygiene, alongside robust programmes to test, trace, isolate and treat.
The roll out of the national COVID-19 vaccination campaign is being led by the Ministry of Health (MoH), with the support from other health development partners.
Note for Editors:COVAX, the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, is co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance Gavi) and the World Health Organization (WHO) – working in partnership with UNICEF as key implementing partner, as well as civil society organisations, vaccine manufacturers, the World Bank, and others.
Contact details: Dorinda Bule, Communications Officer, Department of Public Health, Tel: +678 563 6472