By: Nyima Sillah
As schools reopened, Gibril Gando Baldeh, Senior Health Communication Officer at the Ministry of Health has urged school managements to vaccinate pupils above 12 years.
Speaking in an interview with this reporter, on Wednesday, Baldeh said all “schools should ensure that school going children above 12 years are vaccinated during this vaccination campaigns period and those with one dose to get their second doses.”
“To do this they should call 1025 and give the address of their schools to enable the health teams to visit for vaccination of their students and teachers.”
More so, he said, facemask is still relevant in crowded places like classrooms especially when the students are below vaccination age.
Meanwhile, he noted that Covid-19 is not over in The Gambia and the last Covid-19 situational report has disclosed that 20 new cases plus 1 Covid-19-related death were registered plus 15 active cases.
He explained, “Every week we release the situational report for COVID-19, and share it on our website and other media platforms. But the media is silent about sharing the report on their platforms to the population. The last report on the 12th September was the 451st report and still counting since cases are still coming but low,” he added.
He said further that Ndemban Clinic is still functioning as a treatment center but at the moment no one is on oxygen and no one on admission for the meantime.
“The public should be vigilant as cases increasing in USA and European countries because it can easily get here so all adults and kids age 12 and above should get vaccinated and everyone should get a second dose if you are having only one dose.”
According to him, since the start of the vaccination about 600,000 people have at least taken one dose of the vaccine. He therefore appealed to those that are yet to get vaccinated, to get vaccinated before it’s too late.
“Covid-19 has taken more than 6 million lives worldwide and 372 among those are from The Gambia. And the latest one just last week reported in the 451 situational report of the Covid-19 by the Ministry of Health, The Gambia,” he revealed.
