Full COVID-19 vaccination in sight for 70% of Somalia’s population

Since COVID-19 was first detected in Somalia in March 2020, the country has made remarkable progress in limiting its spread and rolling out COVID-19 vaccination. Thanks to support from partners including WHO Somalia, almost 50% of Somalia’s population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, as at 30 March 2024.

But more must be done to protect Somalia from COVID-19 and to leverage the existing gains to strengthen immunization and the health system more broadly.

One such initiative is the Somalia COVID-19 Emergency Vaccination Project, which has been central to the COVID-19 vaccination efforts to date and is set to continue until September 2025. The Federal Government of Somalia implements the project through the Ministry of Health and WHO Somalia, with financial support from the World Bank.

Since July 2023, the project has supported Ministry of Health efforts to expand the coverage of COVID-19 vaccines and strengthen essential immunization services across Somalia. A crucial part of this work is strengthening the organizational capacity of the National Medicine Regulatory Authority (NMRA), as well as Somalia’s surveillance system for immunization.

To date, the project has supported the following efforts.

The administration of over 12 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines. As a result, 49.7% of Somalia’s population are fully vaccinated. This includes 60% of all internally displaced people in the country and 8% of the nomadic populations.
Surveillance of adverse events following immunization (AEFI) has been integrated into the existing health information management system.
Training of trainers on AEFI surveillance has been delivered to 267 health workers (60% female).
Building of NMRA’s organizational capacity, which has included development of a training plan; a study tour of Kenya and Uganda, to learn from their respective national regulatory authorities for medicines; and regular supportive meetings between NMRA and WHO.

The Somalia COVID-19 Emergency Vaccination Project is expected to help the country achieve its target of fully vaccinating 70% of the population against COVID-19 by end 2024.

Over the next 14 months, to September 2025, the project will integrate COVID-19 vaccination within the Big Catch-up. This global WHO initiative aims to reinstate and enhance access to childhood immunization, which was disrupted worldwide during the COVID-19 emergency.

Dr Renee Van de Weerdt, WHO Representative to Somalia, said: “WHO has a long history of working with the Government of Somalia to improve access to routine immunizations that save lives. Since the start of the pandemic, we have stepped up our collaboration to improve surveillance and response capacities and then to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccination.”

“It is heartening to see the strong results of this collaboration,” she continued. “Not only is the target of fully vaccinating 70% of the Somali population within reach, but systems have been built to ensure that Somalia is better prepared to face the next health emergency. We express our gratitude to the funders who have made this work possible, particularly the World Bank, as well as to the Government of Somalia for leading this initiative.”

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of World Health Organization – Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean.