Covid-19 in Benin : The situation is worrying

The Covid-19 pandemic continues to claim victims in Benin. The situation has been dramatic in recent days and worries the Beninese state through the Minister of Health, Benjamin Hounkpatin. He invites his compatriots to be vaccinated.

"The situation is quite worrying. Despite the government holidays, both the Head of State and the entire government remain very attentive to the development of the situation in our country and in the sub-region. We noticed, in the last few weeks he started having an increase in the number of cases. About a hundred cases per week, barely two months ago, we have now gone through more than a thousand cases. Today, we are more than 10 000 cases already registered ”, summarizes Minister Benjamin Hounkpatin, on the national television set and relayed by the daily Le Matinal (on his site). To believe it, the situation is quite tense because the number of serious cases is increasing hour by hour. "These are young subjects, a priori with no previous history, but in almost all cases, unvaccinated. In the field, we notice that at the level of care centers, it is these unvaccinated subjects who are more and more numerous and who die ”, he emphasizes.

What about reluctance despite awareness raising ...

"It is almost an aberration", they say, when it comes to the aspect of vaccination. "All as much as we are, we vaccinated our children with several antigens repeated according to schedules. We vaccinated ourselves with several antigens. When we want to travel, we vaccinate against yellow fever, meningitis and others ", he argues while recalling that the price to pay is death. "It is sad and unfortunate because it results in deaths. The price to pay, it's death. For those who are vaccinated, even if they do manage to contract the disease at some point, they don't do serious forms ”, he advanced.

The need to get vaccinated

As with many other diseases, vaccination is therefore the ideal way to protect against this pandemic. Many fear that intentionally rigged vaccines will be 'sent' to Africa. But they forget that the West didn't have to wait for Covid-19 to decimate the African population. Indeed, all young children in Africa have a series of vaccines to be given before the age of 5 years to protect against diseases like polio. All international travelers know that you need to be vaccinated against certain diseases before boarding a plane. So these are all opportunities that could have been seized to put an end to Africans, especially since these vaccines - not more than other drugs.- are made outside the continent. In fact, the real enemies of Africa, they are the ones who forge this false information and those who share it because they participate in the spread of the virus and its mutated forms. So, to be vaccinated or not to be vaccinated ? The question does not arise for those who are concerned about their well-being because even if Benin is relatively spared, the Covid-19 has not yet said its last word.

The Republican Police invited to be vaccinated ...

"As part of the fight against Covid-19, the republican police forces are invited to go and be vaccinated without delay, in all the different vaccination posts ”, invited Soumaïla Yaya, Director General of the Republican Police, at the place of his collaborators. According to his words, vaccination is one of the conditions to be fulfilled for each law enforcement agency before being sent on an internship or leaving on an external mission.

Patrice ADJAHO