Chronicle Editor
Vincent Gono, Features Editor
THE Government has started giving Covid-19 vaccination preference to vagabonds, psychiatric patients, geriatrics and other vulnerable groups such as those with disabilities.
The Government has also noted that most of them, especially those living on the streets have not been able to keep vaccination cards intact, making it difficult to keep dates as well as maintain vaccination discipline. The Government efforts come amid fears that some among this population are of no fixed abode and travel with reckless abandon without recognising restrictions and guidelines, thereby heightening the risk of contracting Covid-19.
A majority of them do not observe curfew hours and they cannot be arrested because of their “mental state”. They also do not observe such precautionary measures as masking up, social distancing and sanitising.
In an interview on Friday, Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Deputy Minister Cde Lovemore Matuke told Sunday News that the Government has intensified efforts of rounding up a number of people living in the streets that are eligible for vaccination, taking them to various vaccination centres situated around the country to get jabbed as part of efforts to reduce chances of them contracting Covid-19.
He said the ultimate goal was to ensure that no one from the vulnerable population dies of Covid-19, adding that it was the Government’s wish that no one be left in the streets but kept in homes and institutions constructed to serve that purpose where they could be monitored.
“We have been giving preference to those living in the streets, vagrants, destitutes, psychiatrics and our elderly. We want them vaccinated against Covid-19. President Mnangagwa has been very clear that everyone who so wishes should be vaccinated and our vulnerable population is no exception.
“Your question on the numbers that have so far been vaccinated is a bit difficult because we have been facing the challenge of seeing vaccination cards torn or half burnt as they are often used to smoke tobacco especially by vagabonds and psychiatric patients in the streets and some among them who abuse drugs. We have given some masks but you find them worn in the head,” he said.
Deputy Minister Matuke said they were concentrating efforts on removing people living on the streets taking them to homes and institutions so that they were taken care of and have their Covid-19 vaccination cards well-kept and dates and numbers recorded.
He said it was encouraging that Bulawayo had the biggest number of institutions to house such vulnerable groups although there was a challenge of failing to confine them to the homes.
“The Government has a budget for them. The idea is to get all the street kids and enrol them in schools where fees will be paid by the Government. Most of them, however, have a tendency of running away and returning to the streets and we cannot detain them in the institutions and homes against their will, they are not prisoners. We can only try to convince them,” he said.
Cde Matuke said the long lockdown periods coupled with cold wintry days and nights as well as enforcement of curfews by security agents have forced a number of those living in the streets to look for shelter in homes and institutions although some could not be contained as they had become drug addicts.
“We are taking the vaccination services to psychiatric hospitals and geriatric homes under the request of administrators,” he said.
Asked on reports that there has been food shortages at homes and institutions that cater for the vulnerable as a result of donor fatigue, the Deputy Minister said: “Previously, a majority of orphanages were not receiving grants, some could not even recall the last time they got money from Treasury and have largely been dependent on the few donors that still have something to spare.”
He said recently the Government had been working round the clock to ensure that the gap between the vulnerable and those that were living comfortably was bridged by providing the necessary support.
“We are pushing for all orphanages in the country to provide family-style homes, with a small number of children of various ages living with a ‘mother’ — a model that demands significant financial support which, we are pushing hard for resources to be released so that we sustain it,” said Cde Matuke.
The overall objective, he said was to ensure that the rights of the vulnerable population to basic services such as health, education, shelter, food, water and infrastructure were not infringed upon especially in light of the Covid-19 pandemic where they become more vulnerable.
Online Reporter