Wednesday June 29, 2022
Mogadishu (HOL) - Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud tested negative for COVID-19 on Wednesday, according to his spokesman, Abdikarin Ali Kaar.
"Today, the President tested negative for COVID-19, and I can share with the Somali people that today's testing of the President shows that he has recovered from Covid-19," the spokesman added.
He added that the President would address the Somali people about his health shortly. On Friday, President Mohamud said he had tested positive for COVID-19 after returning to Somalia from a state visit to the United Arab Emirates.
Following tenacious efforts by the government and stakeholders to maintain a commitment to COVID-19 vaccination, Somalia has fully vaccinated 10% of its population with two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, which means that the country is no longer in band of countries with the least vaccination rates.The Horn of African nation started COVID-19 vaccination in March 2021, upon receiving 300,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the COVAX Facility, to protect frontline workers and elderly people with chronic health conditions. The primary source of COVID-19 vaccines for Somalia and the African continent is COVAX. As of June 24th, COVAX had delivered about 7.79 million vaccine doses to Somalia.
"We congratulate the country for the commitment to further and look forward to continuing working together to protect the people of Somalia from COVID-19," said Dr. Richard Mihigo, Director of COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery, Coordination and Integration at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which leads on procurement and delivery at scale for COVAX.
In January 2022, 34 countries were below 10% coverage with two doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Ranking sixteen, Somalia has surpassed several other nations on the list.