When people heard that pharmaceutical companies were working on a COVID-19 vaccine, there was a lot of scepticism on how that was achieved within a short space of time and others have refused to be vaccinated doubting the efficacy of these vaccines and Zimbabwe was not an exception in this, however the tabled have turned for the better as the number of those vaccinated has increased.
During the sitting of Cabinet on 9 March 2021, Vice President and Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr C.G.D.N Chiwenga informed the progress made in the COVID-19 roll out and procurement.
In a post Cabinet briefing with journalists, Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Monica Mutsvangwa revealed the progress so far on the vaccine roll out programme and procurement of more vaccines and transporting those donated by India and Russia.
“Cabinet wishes to inform the public that the COVID-19 roll out programme is well on course, with a total of 34 400 people vaccinated countrywide as of day 12 of the Campaign.
“Progress has been registered in receiving the second donation of 200 000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from China, a donation of 75 000 doses of the inactivated Covaxin from India, and another donation of 20 000 does of Sputnik-V vaccine from Russia,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.
In order to create a variety of vaccines given that people have different tastes and preferences, Cabinet authorised Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) to allow the use of other four COVID-19 vaccines on top of Sinopharm.
“Emergency use authorization has been issued for the four (4) vaccines by the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe, namely: Sinopharm, Sinovac (China), Covaxin (India) and Sputnik-V (Russia),” said the Information Minister.
As of 10 March 2021, a total of 35 901 frontline workers had been vaccinated. A lot of people are currently inquiring about when they can be vaccinated, an indication that people have now fully embraced the programme. The nation wants to achieve herd immunity after vaccinating at least 60percent of the population.
