JUST IN: All set for Covid-19 vaccination

Vusumuzi Dube, Senior Reporter

THE Covid-19 vaccination administration will be done at fixed and outreach points in the country which will see up to two outreach teams being allocated per rural district depending on its size.

Government announced that the Covid-19 vaccine rollout starts on Thursady with 49 000 health workers and thousands of other high-risk frontline staff set to be vaccinated under the first phase.

This follows the delivery of the first batch of the Sinopharm vaccines from China on Monday. Chinese firm, Sinopharm, says its vaccine is 80 percent effective in preventing Covid-19 infection. The company has gained approval in over a dozen countries and has begun distributing hundreds of millions of Covid-19 doses around the world. Early Phase I and II data suggest the Chinese vaccines are safe.

The immunisation programme, which is for free and voluntary, is targeting 10 million people in three phases to complete the exercise.

In a presentation on the vaccine deployment and roll out plan, acting chief director of curative services in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Dr Maxwell Hove revealed that Harare will get 11 teams while Bulawayo will be allocated four teams.

“The assumption is vaccination will be conducted over 10 days in the first round and five days in the second round, Supervisors drawn from head office, provinces and districts will monitor planning, implementation and outcomes

“The immunization supply chain of Zimbabwe consists of four levels which are central, provincial, district and service delivery. Vaccine distribution follows this channel from the Central Vaccine to 10 Provincial and 63 district vaccine stores, and then to more than 1 800 service delivery facilities,” said Dr Hove.

He said distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine will follow the existing distribution structure of routine vaccines and supplies.