Hilma Nakanduungile
Kaleb Nghishidivali
EENHANA – The Ohangwena region, which has only vaccinated a little over 22 000 people against Covid-19, has set itself an ambitious target of vaccinating at least 164 102 inhabitants.
This was announced by Eenhana district primary healthcare supervisor Betty Johannes during the launch of the ‘Get Vaccinated, Help Kick Covid-19 out of Namibia’ campaign at Eenhana on Friday. According to Johannes, only 17 127 people are thus far considered fully vaccinated in Ohangwena.
Information minister Peya Mushelenga, who launched the campaign, urged Namibians to get vaccinated in order to protect themselves and minimise the chances of contracting the virus. “Covid-19 is a serious pandemic that all of us need to take seriously. Vaccination helps us to build strong immune system in our bodies, so that by the time the pandemic attacks us, we will be strong enough to fight back and be able to kick it out of Namibia,” stressed Mushelenga. He further added that without unity, Namibians cannot fight the virus, hence a need to put away all the differences and unite in battling the pandemic.
He also warned those who spread misinformation on Covid-19 vaccines to stop, as it discourages those who are willing to get vaccinated. “We can only kick Covid-19 out if we are united and we do not bring in politics.
We should team up so that we can defeat this invisible enemy.
We have some that are promoting vaccination and others discouraging those that want to get vaccinated.
If you so decide that you do not want to be vaccinated, you must allow those that want to get vaccinated to do so without discouraging them and telling them all sort of incorrect information that you picked from social media.
A people united shall never be defeated. Only if we team up, we can make it possible,” encouraged Mushelenga. According to Johannes, despite the strides made so far, the region is faced with challenges such as shortage of personnel, logistics, and vaccine hesitancy, associated with myths and fake news from social media. The countrywide Covid-19 vaccination roadshows and the MTC VaxUp 081 campaign initiative was jointly launched by the ministers of ICT and health on 21 October 2021.