Sierra Leone received an additional US$8.5 million grant to support affordable and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. The funds will provide upfront financing to help purchase and deploy coronavirus vaccines, and to strengthen relevant health systems necessary for a successful deployment and to prepare for future pandemic outbreaks. The additional resources will also support the costs of expanding activities of the—Sierra Leone COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Project—under the Coronavirus disease Strategic Preparedness and Response Program. It will complement the resources from the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Advanced Market Commitment (AMC) Facility to jointly vaccinate close to a quarter of the country’s population by the end of 2021.
Giving an interview Hon. Austin Demby, the Minister of Health and Sanitation said
These additional funds present an opportunity for us as a Government to strengthen our response to the pandemic, and to broaden the implementation of the Coronavirus vaccine rollout. Now the work of translating available funds into vaccinations and COVID-19 prevention and care activities go into high gear.
