The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor
ZIMBABWE’S Covid-19 vaccination programme continues to yield positive results as the country on Friday breached the two million mark of people who have received both doses of the vaccine.
This comes amid reports that Germany has since removed the country from its list of countries considered to be high risk to the pandemic. Zimbabwe was removed from the list together with South Africa, Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, Cyprus, Eswatini, India, Ireland — the region West, Lesotho, Malawi, Nepal, Portugal — the region Algarve and Zambia.
Posting on his Twitter page, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Mr Nick Mangwana applauded the move.
“From tomorrow 19 September 2021 at midnight, Germany has reclassified regions it considers High Risk to Covid-19. The great news is Zimbabwe is no longer considered a high risk area. Let’s hope other countries like the UK will follow suit,” said Mr Mangwana.
Latest statistics compiled from official sources by open data portal Our World in Data show that Zimbabwe is ranked third in terms of Covid-19 inoculation in the Southern African region.
As of Friday the country had vaccinated 32,9 percent of its population, with the only two countries ranked above it being Mauritius with 127,6 percent of the population being vaccinated and the Union of the Comoros with 37,6 percent.
South Africa has vaccinated 26,1 percent of its population, Botswana; 24,5 percent and Mozambique has inoculated 10,6 percent of its population. In the entire African continent, Morocco is second to Mauritius, with 99 percent of the population having been inoculated and Cape Verde has vaccinated 65,6 percent of the population. Majority of the countries in the continent are however, below the 10 percent mark.
According to the Ministry of Health and Child Care as of Friday 2 930 850 had got their first dose with 2 032 831 having got both doses of the vaccine. By last week the country had received a total of 11 860 000 doses of vaccine.
Deputy Minister of Health and Child Care Dr John Mangwiro paid gratitude to President Emmerson Mnangagwa for his servant leadership where he had come up with a clear plan on the country’s Covid-19 response. He revealed that the country will be upping its vaccination drive as more doses of the vaccine arrived in the country.
“The achievements we have made are definitely attributed to the President, the planning in advance, the wisdom that was placed there, the importance he gives to Zimbabwean’s lives and the understanding of science to say people must survive and what is best for the people and plan for it.
“The President is moving us in the right direction, he is protecting us in the fight against Covid-19 and just last week he saluted the frontline workers that had lost their lives, health workers are doing very well and are well supported, we will continue along these lines and we will certainly reach great milestones,” said Dr Mangwiro.
The vaccine roll-out began in earnest on 22 February targeting health workers and other frontline staff. It has now been opened to all Zimbabweans and plans are underway to start vaccinating teenagers in the 14-17 age group.
According to figures from the Health Ministry as of Friday the country had 127 632 confirmed cases, including 120 156 recoveries and 4 562 deaths.
