Vaccine

According to the Ministry of Health, 77 per cent of all adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

The ministry’s latest report as of 3 April shows that 68.6 per cent of the eligible population are fully vaccinated.

“This large increase in the proportion fully vaccinated relative to last week is in part due to reconciling a backlog of data entry.”

The provinces of Santo, Shefa, Torba and Malampa report 69 to 78 per cent of all adults are fully vaccinated.

Penama and Tafea provinces have low rates of fully vaccinated populations.

Moderna said neutralising antibodies were found in the first eight people who took part in their safety trials.

It also said the immune response was similar to that in people infected with the actual virus.

Larger trials to see whether the jab protects against infection are expected to start in July.

Work on a coronavirus vaccine has been taking place at unprecedented speed, with around 80 groups around the world working on them.

Moderna was the first to test an experimental vaccine, called mRNA-1273, in people.

The figures, released during World Immunization Week, make UNICEF the largest buyer of vaccines for children in the world.

Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the three remaining polio-endemic countries, each received more doses of vaccines than any other country, with almost 450 million doses of vaccines procured to children in Nigeria, 395 million in Pakistan and over 150 million in Afghanistan. UNICEF is the lead procurement agency for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.