Addressing delegates at the ongoing United Nations 77th Session running under the theme“A watershed moment: transformative solutions to interlocking challenges”, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said the COVID-19 pandemic had overstretched the healthcare systems and exposed the differences between developed and developing countries.
"This 77th Session comes in the wake of debilitating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic that overstretched our healthcare systems and severely exposed the disparities between developed and developing countries, with regards to vaccine access. Africa is among the most affected,” said President Mnangagwa.
The President noted that lessons drawn from the COVID-19 pandemic should see the world adopting multi-pronged strategies to deal with pandemics in future.
“The lessons from the pandemic should inspire and enable the UN General Assembly to urgently scale up means to build multi- pronged capacities that must guide our collective response to future pandemics and other global challenges,” said the President.
President Mnangagwa pointed out that despite the negative impact of illegal sanctions imposed on the country, Zimbabwe managed to implement a COVID-19 response strategy using locally available resources and attained high vaccination rates.
“Despite the illegal economic sanctions, Zimbabwe successfully implemented its COVID-19 National Response Strategy, anchored largely by our own internal resources and institutional capacities.
“The pro-active approach by my administration enabled the country to achieve high vaccination rates, which extended to children up to 12 years,” said President Mnangagwa.
The President went on to announce that Zimbabwe had embarked on revamping health infrastructure, improved capacities around bio-technology and the pharmaceutical value chain in order to deliver Universal Health Coverage.
“Meanwhile, our focus on the construction, rehabilitation and modernisation of health facilities across the country, coupled with the enhanced capacities around bio-technology and the pharmaceutical value chain, attests to my Government’s determination to realise Universal Health Coverage,” said the President.
