Guinea will start vaccinating against its latest Ebola outbreak on Tuesday, officials have said after 11 000 doses of vaccine touched down in the capital Conakry.
The country has four confirmed cases and four probable cases of the deadly virus, including five deaths, in its first resurgence since sweeping through Guinea, Libera and Sierra Leone between 2013 and 2016, killing 11 300 people.
The outbreak was declared in Guinea’s Nzerekore region over a week ago.
WHO representative, Alfred Georges Ki-Zerbo, was at the airport in Conakry on Monday night as the vaccines touched down.
“The vaccines will be deployed in the field, in the theatre of operations, in N’Zerekore tomorrow, which is planned, and then go to all the sites where we need them to protect the contacts of the patients and encircle the propagation of this epidemic that is a concern for Guinea as well as for neighboring countries.”
The vaccines had been expected to arrive from Europe on Sunday but were delayed after heavy dust, caused by harmattan winds from the Sahara Desert, prevented the plane from landing.
Pleased that #Ebola vaccines have arrived in #Guinea last night despite poor weather conditions. A vaccination team has been deployed to N’Zerekore & is ready to rollout vaccinations as soon as the vaccines are received. https://t.co/pGEQAxriIw
— Dr Matshidiso Moeti (@MoetiTshidi) February 23, 2021
In this video below, Health Ministry in Guinea says at least four people have died of Ebola:
