The Malawi Government is yet to receive an additional batch of Covid 19 AstraZeneca Vaccine before the end of May, Principle Secretary in the Ministry of Health Charles Mwansambo has confirmed.

Mwansambo made the announcements at Capital Hill on Monday while launching the vaccinating exercise for the civil servants and retired civil servants, an event presided over by the deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Janet Banda.

In his remarks, Mwansambo said the vaccine has a short life span, a development that has forced the country to bring in the jab in batches to make sure that it is used before expiring.

“We cannot get big quantities of the vaccine at one time as the jab has a short life span, this is why we are getting the jab in batches,” he said.

However, Mwansambo has assured Malawians that the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine remains an ongoing exercise to reach out to a total of 11 million people in the country.

Meanwhile, the secretary argues all civil servants to get their vaccine jabs while further explaining that they should continue to adhere to covid measures even after vaccinating.

The country is however expected to receive over 1.2 million dosages following the exercise.

Malawi registered its first case of Covid 19 in April last year, prior to this; over 33 thousand cases have been recorded out of which over 1 thousand people succumbed to the disease.