After the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the DREAM centre in Blantyre, Malawi, also began administering covid19 vaccines, thus inaugurating a new vaccination hub in Africa.
In Malawi, the percentage of the population vaccinated is 3%, the first doses arrived in spring 2021, but ran out early. Only a month ago the country received a donation from some EU and US countries of 395,000 doses from AstraZeneca and Janssen.
The country is only now recovering from its third wave that saw 61,800 infected and 3,000 dead and a long lock-down of almost three months that had a devastating economic impact on the population, worsening the already widespread poverty due to chronic lack of food and employment.
Sant’Egidio has been deeply rooted in the country for almost 20 years, and through the DREAM Programme and its health structures spread throughout the territory, it has been engaged since the beginning of the pandemic in the fight against COVID, providing masks, sanitation products and above all implementing a major awareness campaign on the social distancing measures to be taken.
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