The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor
WITH the country fast approaching the one million mark of people that have been vaccinated against the Covid-19 pandemic, the vaccination exercise is gathering momentum in remote areas as government ups its drive towards achieving herd immunity.
According to the figures released by the Ministry of Health and Child Care as at Tuesday, the country had 955 656 Zimbabweans having received their first jab of the Covid-19 vaccine while 619 883 had also received their second.
Posting on his Twitter account, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Mr Nick Mangwana showed a number of visuals in Binga and Tsholotsho noting that the rural vaccination programme was gathering pace.
“Rural vaccination programme Tsholotsho: vaccination is ongoing in the district’s health facilities. There are 23 vaccination sites (three hospitals and 20 clinics) … In Binga residents queue up to receive the vaccines. Queues started forming as early as 830am and have continued to get longer.
“In Lupane, the vaccines have so far been distributed to five health centers, -St Luke’s, -Lupane, -Jotsholo, -Fatima and -Gwayi. The remaining eight centers are still to receive their vaccines owing to logistic challenges which are being addressed,” wrote Mr Mangwana.
The country’s much lauded vaccination drive, which began in February, was initially targeted at the elderly, those with underlying conditions and frontline workers.
Speaking at a post Cabinet meeting briefing on Tuesday, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa revealed that the vaccination drive opened up further, with more dosses set to be distributed around the country’s 10 provinces.
“Cabinet reports that out of the 2 million doses of vaccine that the Ministry of Health and Child Care received on 8th July, 2021 every province received 50 000 first doses except for Harare and Bulawayo Metropolitan provinces which received 100 000 doses each.
“A total of 1.5 million vaccine doses will be distributed this coming week. The nation is informed that vaccination is now open to everybody, with frontline personnel still being prioritised at vaccination centres,” she said.
Minister Mutsvangwa said as demand for jabs increased, extra manpower from the security services had been enlisted to assist in the vaccination drive.
“Cabinet is pleased to note that citizens across the country continue to present themselves for vaccination in large numbers. In order to minimise the time spent in queues, extra personnel from security and defence forces have been harnessed so as to increase the numbers of personnel at the vaccination centres.
“Furthermore, the Ministry of Health and Child Care, working with relevant Government Departments, is taking measures to ensure that vaccination, rapid response and case management teams are supported with vehicles, fuel and subsistence allowance to ensure that the country achieves herd immunity,” she said.
