The Sunday News
Munyaradzi Musiiwa, Sunday News Reporter
ZIMBABWE is poised to become one of the first African countries achieve the herd immunity for the Covid-19 vaccination after the Finance and Economic Development Ministry granted authority to purchase five million doses of vaccines.
This brings the total doses to more than six million against a population of about 14 million. Herd immunity is when most of a population is immune to an infectious disease and this provides indirect protection or population immunity also called herd protection to those who are not immune to the disease.
In a post Cabinet briefing on Tuesday, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said Government was procuring five million more Sinopharm vaccines to add on to the one million doses it received from different countries.
Minister Mutsvangwa said Government was also awaiting the delivery of 600 000 more doses.
“Cabinet considered and approved the progress report on the Procurement and Roll-Out of Covid-19 vaccines, as presented by the Vice President and Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr Constantino Chiwenga. Cabinet is pleased to advise that Government is awaiting delivery of 600 000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines following completion of procurement processes. In addition, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development has granted authority to purchase five million more doses of vaccines,” she said.
Minister Mutsvangwa said 234 709 people in the country have so far been vaccinated.
“Cabinet also wishes to report that as at April 12, 2021, 234 709 people have received their first dose of the vaccine, while 29 304 received their second dose. Steps are being taken to increase the number of people to be vaccinated across the provinces, particularly in hotspot areas in Matabeleland South, Mashonaland West, Harare and Manicaland Provinces,” she said.
Minister Mutsvangwa said Government was in the process to printing vaccination certificates with features that would be recognized internationally and stored into the World Health Organisation repository. This resonates with the global proposal for a Covid-19 passport where there maybe restricted movement for unvaccinated people.
The arrangement is not unique to Covid 19 as some countries require Yellow Fever vaccination on or before arrival.
“Cabinet also advises that printing of the new Covid-19 Vaccination cards with security features is on course, and the World Health Organisation is working on a platform to store vaccination data for use internationally,” she said.
