Zimbabwe had been exploring the feasibility of vaccinating teenagers aged between 14 and 17 years against COVID-19 as a way of increasing protection of the population and on Wednesday, Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Senator Monica Mutsvangwa in a post-Cabinet media briefing announced that Cabinet has finally made the approval.
“On the advice of scientists, the vaccination programme will also be extended to the 14 to 17-year age group.
“The Ministry of Health and Child Care will employ the following strategies in the rolling out of the vaccination exercise; expanding the engagement of the private sector; involving churches, universities and other institutions of higher learning; and accelerating outreach campaigns taking advantage of the Integrated Expanded Programme for Immunisation,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.
Meanwhile, in an effort to address manpower shortage and increasing the number of people to be vaccinated per day in Chitungwiza, Minister Mutsvangwa reported that Chitungwiza Municipality health workers will now be operating under Ministry of Health and Child Care.
“To speed up the vaccination programme in Chitungwiza Town and help alleviate the shortage of health personnel, the Chitungwiza Municipality nursing staff has since been transferred to be part of the Ministry of Health and Child Care establishment,” said the Minister of Information.
Government is making all efforts to vaccinate as many people as possible in order to attain the 60 percent herd immunity. In this regard, a total of 13 million COVID-19 doses have been purchased out of the required 20 million doses.
