Senegalese president personally kicks off vaccine campaign

Macky Sets an Example for Senegal

Senegalese President Macky Sall in a nationally televised ceremony on Thursday at the presidential palace in Dakar was administered a COVID-19 vaccine — urging citizens to follow his example and get their own coronavirus shots as more vaccines arrive in the country.

Macky addressed the nations:

"There have been a lot of theories about the vaccine. These theories have not only been developed in Senegal, it's all over the world but, I would like to reassure you that it has not been easy to bring the vaccines. Very few African countries today have this opportunity, to be vaccinated, it took a lot of effort to get here. So, the vaccines that we have brought and that we will continue to bring, we're hopeful that by next week, in the next few days, we can have lots more."

Senegal is one of 7 countries in Africa to launch a vaccine campaign against COVID-19 and the country has received 200,000 doses of China's Sinopharm vaccine — of which it will share 10% with the Gambia and Guinea Bissau, as it awaits nearly 1.3 million more injections via the COVAX initiative in March.