Botswana to vaccinate all citizens against COVID-19: president

GABORONE -- Botswana plans to vaccinate every citizen in the nation against the deadly COVID-19 pandemic once available, President Mokgweetsi Masisi said Wednesday.

"The country's real and long term solution in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic is to vaccinate the whole population (of Botswana) against the deadly disease," said Masisi in a video sent out to journalists soon after a closed door meeting with officials from the World Bank Africa.

Masisi said vaccinating the whole population is the quickest possible time to deal with this global pandemic, because vaccinating only 20 percent of the population will not hit the number needed to treat to neither provide protection nor get immunity out of it.

"We want to procure the most effective vaccine given our circumstances and the potential for success," said Masisi, adding that Botswana will mobilize citizens from all corners of this southern African country with an estimated population of 2.3 million people.

Botswana has got a rich history of immunization, according to Masisi, adding that immunizing people against COVID-19 will not be a huge problem.

Botswana has recorded 20, 658 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 124 deaths since the outbreak of the disease in March last year.