Some CoVID-19 vaccine risk expiring due to low uptake response from the public

Various corporate companies and organisations are encouraging people to get vaccinated

* So far, only over half a million people in this country are fully vaccinated

* Less than 5% of the targeted 11 million people that need to vaccinate to reach herd immunity

* Though the CoVID-19 restrictions have saved lives, they have caused inevitable damage to livelihoods

By Duncan Mlanjira

One of the long-term wound that in the country’s economy which President Lazarus Chakwera’s administration is set to heal is the CoVID-19 pandemic, “which is now in its fourth wave of not only infecting swathes of the population, but also tearing into the very fabric of our economic development”.

This was said by the President in his national address on Tuesday when he unveiled the CoVID-19 Socio-Economic Recovery Plan (SERP) for the period between 2021 and 2023, saying so far, only over half a million people in this country are fully vaccinated, which is less than 5% of the targeted 11 million people that need to vaccinate to reach herd immunity.

“We actually have 11 vaccine doses that are in danger of expiring, because so many of you are not getting vaccinated,” he said as an appeal to all Malawians that Socio-Economic Recovery Plan’s success will depend on the participation of all citizenry.

Thus he informed the public that since the onset of the pandemic, the country has registered over 60,000 cases that included over 2,300 related deaths.

“In the 32 months that CoVID-19 has been in our midst, we have had two presidential declarations of national disaster, with accompanying restrictions of movement. Though the restrictions have saved lives, they have caused inevitable damage to livelihoods, as many have been forced to work from home or forced out of work or forced to close an income generating activity.

“…The reality is that if you do not get vaccinated, you will continue putting our economy at risk of staying stagnant, because we cannot fully open up the economy if there are still citizens at risk of suffering severe disease from the virus.

“The more of you get vaccinated and protected from severe Covid disease, the less pressure there will be on our health system, which is currently draining so many of our national resources to support the hospitalization of unvaccinated Covid patients.

“So, some of the resources in this Socio- Economic Recovery Plan will go towards immunization efforts, and we are already taking the vaccines to communities and hard to reach areas with the goal of increasing daily vaccinations 7-fold from 1000 to 7000.

“But the bottom line is this: we cannot recover the economy as fast as we want to until we all get serious about getting vaccinated and observing such measures for stopping the spread of the virus as wearing masks, washing hands, and keeping a distant from others and crowded spaces.

“To recover the ground the economy has lost to the pandemic, we have to stop the pandemic in its tracks. Toward that end, the Socio-Economic Recovery Plan I am announcing today includes interventions aimed at intensifying efforts to vaccinate the population.”

He went further to indicate that the Socio-Economic Recovery Plan also includes interventions to provide safety nets towards those left most vulnerable by the pandemic.

“Specifically, Government in cooperation with its partners, will scale-up its targeted cash transfer programme during the 2021-2023 Recovery Period towards the most vulnerable urban and rural poor, including the Green Corps initiative targeting the youth.”

The President said a “further aspect of the Socio-Economic Recovery Plan to address the effects of the pandemic is the provision and scaling up of fiscal and monetary stimulus towards those productive sectors damaged by CoVID-19, such as the hospitality and service sector, creative industry, and small and medium enterprises.

“This will in fact be a key focus of Government through the Ministry of Finance and the Reserve Bank throughout the 2021-2023 Recovery Period. That focus will include a review of the amount, terms, and scope of loans available to young people and women through the National Economic Empowerment Fund (NEEF).

“It will also include rolling out a skill development programme under the National Youth Service towards the creation of more jobs for youth. These will not be jobs or loans handed out on demand or as an entitlement on a silver platter, but jobs and loans that will only benefit those ready to pursue them fearlessly and compete for them fairly.”

Singled out “government waste” as another long-term wound the country’s economy “is bleeding from”, saying: “We cannot recover the economy if the taxes you pay are not properly utilized and safeguarded across the state machinery.

“And considering that we are a nation suffocating from huge debts left behind by the previous administration, we simply cannot afford to waste any resources.

“For this reason, this Socio-Economic Recovery Plan includes interventions for digitalizing service delivery of governance, health, education, procurements, and payments to stop the leakage of resources.

“Within the SERP period of 2021-2023, the Digital Economy Strategy will be implemented, including a review of taxes on digital services in order to bring down data costs.”

As an added measure to cut down waste, Chakwera said he has directed all Ministries to review their plans for local and international travel during the 2021-2023 recovery period, as well as their plans for the procurement of new vehicles during that same period.

“The outcome of their review must be the submission of revised and scaled down plans that limit spending on travel and new vehicles to what is deemed absolutely necessary.

“I myself have not added a single new car to my convoy, but continue to use the cars inherited from my predecessor, and I am already scaling down my travel plans for the recovery period, and so I expect every Ministry under my Administration to do the same.

“And I want to assure all Malawians that since I do not practice wastage of your taxes, I will also not tolerate it from others.

Similarly, through the office of the Attorney General, working with independent law enforcement agencies, my Administration will not tolerate any of your taxes to be wasted on frivolous claims against the government by businesses whose main trade is inflating prices and extorting the state.

“I know that during the previous administration it had become fashionable to sue the government in the hopes of getting a big payout, but this culture has only impoverished our country as a whole.

“I therefore ask for your support in discouraging this culture, and to instead support a culture of honest business with honest prices from honest contractors.

“In this regard, I must thank the fuel transporters who had previously taken government to court, but have since chosen to settle the matter out of court to save taxpayer resources. Protecting the taxes of Malawians from being wasted is a form of patriotism all of us must support, whether the taxes are those used by the Executive, the Judiciary, or the Legislature.”

Thus he said the Recovery Plan is designed “to give some the resilience to hang-in there during these hard times, give some the capacity to step- up production, and give others support to step-out into new sectors through diversification and value-addition”.

“With the economic interventions we have effected so far this year, economic growth recovery for the year 2022 is already projected at over 5% of GDP. And with the measures I have outlined as part of the Socio-Economic Recovery Plan for the period 2021 to 2023, and each of us playing our part to build a new Malawi, I am confident that our economy will rebound even more.

“To get you involved in the process, over the next few weeks, various members of my Administration will engage you and our cooperating partners to unpack this Socio-Economic Recovery Plan in more detail.

The Vice-President, as Minister of Economic Planning and Development, will engage the private sector and development partners on ways they can support the plan, because we need their support.

“The Minister of Finance will engage various stakeholders in consultations aimed at ensuring that this Socio- Economic Recovery Plan is reflected in the upcoming budget, together with programmes like the free water connections that we have had in the pipeline.

“The Ministers of Information and Civic Education, in consultation with other Ministries, will develop and implement a Communication Strategy to keep you all informed of the efforts and progress made on all aspects of the Socio-Economic Recovery Plan going forward.

“I know we are living in uncertain and turbulent times, times in which every nation and economy on earth has suffered heavy losses. But that does not mean we should give in to despair, nor entertain those whose interest is to turn us against each other. A time of loss is not a time for politics.

“This is a time to stand together as one nation behind a plan to recover what we have lost, and a time to sow and water our seeds, enduring the lean season upon us because we know that our harvest is coming.”

He concluded by saying: “When that harvest comes, we will rejoice in it together while the world looks on and says, look what the Lord has done in Malawi! God is working, and so must we.

“I wish you all a Happy and Covid-free Christmas and New Year. God bless you and God bless Malawi.”