PandemicPreparedness

2022

31 January: Individuals aged 12-17 are eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccine from 14 January onwards. Pfizer/BioNTech's vaccine is being used for this group.

3 January: Health officials have confirmed that COVID-19 vaccination has been expanded to age groups 12 to 17 years. Two doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine will be given at an interval of 4 weeks to vaccinate this group.

2021

30 November: Media sources have reported that officials have approved the use of Pfizer/BioNTech's vaccine for children aged 12 years and above. Further guidelines on this are awaited.

10 April: Due to a fast approaching expiration date on approximately 40,000 COVID-19 vaccines received from the African Union, Malawi has expanded eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine to all Malawians 18-years and older.

So far, Malawi has received 512,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The first batch of 360,000 doses came in early March under the COVAX program. Soon after, Malawi received 50,000 doses from India and 102,000 doses from the African Union. To date, approximately 164,000 doses have been administered mostly in urban areas.

12 March: The vaccination campaign was initiated on 11 March. The first phase will target frontline workers including health workers, teachers and journalists.

5 March: The WHO announced today that the first vaccines from COVAX have arrived in the country. 360,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine were shipped from the Serum Institute of India and arrived in Lilongwe in the evening today local time.

28 February: The African Union has allocated Malawi 100,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vacccine. The vaccine is expected to arrive in March, and will be used for front line health workers.