Cause | COVID-19 pandemic |
---|
COVID-19 vaccination in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is an ongoing immunisation campaign against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), in response to the ongoing pandemic in the country.
The Democratic Republic of Congo started its COVID-19 vaccination campaign on 19 April 2021 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.[1] COVID-19 vaccination in Democratic Republic of Congo was made possible using COVAX, an international scheme to make safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines worldwide.[2] More than 90% of the doses received are the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured in India.[2] Congo received 1.7 million doses via COVAX. However, DRC administered only around 1000 doses by the end of April, and 1.3 million COVAX doses were returned for redistribution to other African countries before they expire in the end of June.[1][3] The main reasons for low vaccination rate in Congo are poor healthcare infrastructure, political instability and spread of misinformation.[2][4]