62% of target population vaccinated in Mat South

Yoliswa Dube-Moyo, Matabeleland South Bureau Chief
SIXTY-TWO percent of the targeted population in Matabeleland South province has been vaccinated against Covid-19.

The province has vaccinated about 341 000 people against its target to vaccinate 550 000 people with the first dose of the vaccine.

About 75 000 doses have been administered in the second phase of the national vaccination blitz in the province with about 50 000 people having been vaccinated in the first phase targeting 12 to 15 year olds.

Matabeleland South provincial medical director Dr Rudo Chikodzero said the vaccination campaign is targeting people who are 12 years old and above.

“The province has started the second phase of the Covid-19 vaccination campaign where we are targeting people who are 12 years and above.

We have administered about 75 000 doses during this campaign.

As a province, we have vaccinated about 62 percent of our target of about 550 000 with the first dose,” said Dr Chikodzero.

She urged members of the public to get vaccinated.

“We urge members of the public to come to our service delivery points and access these services for free,” said Dr Chikodzero.

Government approved the vaccination of 12-year-olds with the Sinovac Biotech (SVA.O) vaccine.

The upgraded Covid-19 vaccination blitz was launched by Vice-President and Minister of Health and Child Care Dr Constantino Chiwenga on March 20.

The blitz was conducted in two phases, with the first phase ending in April, while the second phase has been running from May 2.

The aim of the campaign is to reach 70 percent of the total Zimbabwean population by the end of July 2022 in line with World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations.

Government confirmed that the country had enough vaccine stocks for the national vaccination blitz having received 22 405 000 Covid-19 vaccine doses.

The Ministry of Health and Child Care said the Sinovac shot would be the only vaccine eligible for use on teenagers and minors.

National Covid-19 co-ordinator Dr Agnes Mahomva said the country has come a long way in its Covid-19 management programme.

“As a country we are very proud of the successes that we have managed to accomplish. We hit the ground running at the beginning of the pandemic.

Remember in March 2020, we had already launched our National Preparedness and Response Plan which was launched by His Excellency.

“We specifically put up the Cabinet inter-ministerial taskforce that made sure that we were following the whole of Government, whole of society and everyone on board and all those preparations at the very start of the pandemic made sure that our national response was very strong,” said Dr Mahomva.

“We were very clear in terms of the strategies we were guided by World Health Organisation pillars of responding to the pandemic. We have never looked back.”

She said the country has navigated through four waves of the pandemic, which have served as a learning curve in case management.

Dr Mahomva said following the strategies that were adopted, Zimbabwe has recorded fewer deaths compared to some well-resourced countries.

“You’ll notice that we didn’t get hit by a large number of cases if we compare it to other countries.

We also managed to introduce the vaccination programme earlier than anyone in the African continent.

As we speak, our vaccination programme remains one of the leading programmes in the African continent.

We want to get everybody who is eligible for vaccination,” said Dr Mahomva.

She said from the country’s Covid-19 management, there is hope at the end of the tunnel.