MADRID, 5 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
This Friday Burma will begin the general vaccination phase of the population, in the midst of the coup d’état perpetrated by the Army last Monday, with priority for those over 65 and the promise of the military to inoculate 38.4 million people by the end of the year.
This was announced by the newly appointed Minister of Health and Sports, Thet Khaing Win, after the resignation of his predecessor, Myint Htwe, after the military takeover, according to ‘The Irrawaddy’.
Burma has already vaccinated around 110,000 health workers, while the deposed members of parliament were immunized on January 29.
Given the need to receive the second dose, parliamentarians may receive it at any vaccination center, stressed the director of the Epidemiology of Emerging Infectious Diseases Unit of the Health portfolio, Khin Khin Gyi.
On January 22, Burma received 1.5 million doses of Covishield as a gift from India, and another two million doses are expected to arrive in the country on February 11, which also awaits its corresponding share of the mechanism’s vaccines. COVAX, which are expected to arrive at the end of February.
The new phase of Burma’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign comes as hundreds of doctors across the country are on strike to protest the coup.
As a result of the tensions generated in Burma after the general elections held in November – in which the NLD prevailed -, intensified by accusations of electoral fraud – without evidence – by the opposition and the Army, the Monday the military detained the country’s leaders along with members of the NLD and seized power by declaring a state of emergency for a year.
The latest figures from Burma reflect that, so far, 140,927 cases of COVID-19 have been detected, including 3,160 deaths and 126,384 patients who have managed to overcome the disease.