COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery Partnership Global Lead Coordinator arrives in Malawi

Malawi: The Global Lead Coordinator for the COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery Partnership (CoVDP), Mr. Ted Chaiban, arrived in Malawi on June 1, 2022, for a three-day official visit.

Mr Chaiban will participate in joint high-level advocacy meetings with the government, development partners, and other key stakeholders to support the acceleration of COVID-19 vaccination coverage and to ensure that COVID-19 response remains a top priority for Malawi.

“This visit to Malawi is also to introduce the Global Partnership for COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery to country stakeholders. Together, we will take stock of the COVID-19 vaccination programme rollout and progress in Malawi, get insights on the main bottlenecks to the scale-up of the programme and identify solutions and entry points to address them,” he said.

Malawi's situation, according to Mr Chaiban, is critical because the country is not only vulnerable to COVID-19, especially at a time when rates are rising again in Southern Africa, but it has also faced simultaneous outbreaks of other deadly diseases, including cholera and the first case of wild polio since 1992.

He stated that they are looking for ways to pool resources to address COVID-19 in the short term while building the systems required to make the country more resilient to future public health emergencies.

Mr Chaiban will meet with representatives from non-governmental and civil society organisations, religious leaders, health workers, and partners. He will visit the Kasungu district to observe and appreciate the District Health authorities' key COVID-19 vaccination activities.

Mr Chaiban was appointed by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres as CoVDP Global Lead Coordinator for COVID-19 Country Readiness and Delivery at the level of Assistant Secretary-General in February 2022.

According to the latest information from the Ministry of Health, Malawi has recorded a total of 85,991 cases, with 2,641 deaths (Case Fatality Rate is at 3.07 percent ).

There are 2,875 imported infections and 83,116 locally transmitted infections among these cases.

In total, 82,880 cases have now been recovered (a recovery rate of 96.38 percent) and 277 have been lost to follow-up.