The Ministry of Health has said it will vaccinate 5,000 people as its rollout nationwide coronavirus vaccination programme. 

About 20,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines were recently donated by the Senegalese government as a goodwill gesture to The Gambia.

Half of that doses will be given to 5000 Gambians, frontline health workers and the most vulnerable are thought to be on the priority list. 

The vaccine doses were handed over to President Adama Barrow on Saturday at a State House ceremony. 

The Senegalese delegation was led by Dr Annette Seck Ndiaye. She said that they came to deliver 10,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines to The Gambia as a gesture from President Macky Sall to support the country in its fight against the pandemic.

Dr Ndiaye thanked the president for the warm reception while stating that the donation of these vaccines will further strengthen the bilateral relationship between the two countries. 

The Minister of Health Dr Ahmadou Samateh, who accompanied the delegation to the presidency, expressed his delight and appreciation to President Macky Sall and the Government of Senegal for the vaccines, noting that they could not have come at a better time than now when both countries are fighting the virus. 

Reporting by  Adama Makasuba