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Thupeyo Muleya
Beitbridge Bureau
Government has mobilised resources to roll out a mass vaccination programme in Zimbabwe’s border towns, where residents are at high risk of contracting Covid-19.
People residing in border towns are also dependent mostly on economic activities related to cross-border trade, which exposes them.
Chief director in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Dr Maxwell Hove, yesterday met various community leaders in Beitbridge, including clergymen, businessmen, politicians, educationists, heads of Government departments, and other private organisations.
Dr Hove said it was critical for the country to have herd immunity in border towns where residents were the first in line of fire whenever there were new epidemics.
He said for Beitbridge urban, they were targeting to vaccinate at least 26 000 adults from the age of 18 to 80.
“We all know that the spread of Covid-19 is mostly by travellers,” he said.
“This disease started somewhere far in the east, but ended up throughout the world and mainly being transmitted by those who were travelling either by air, road or sea. Our first case in Zimbabwe was brought from the United Kingdom and our first death was of a person who came from New York and all these people are travellers.
“All these people were returnees and because they are citizens of Zimbabwe, we would allow them to come in and a lot of them were carrying the virus and spread it around the communities.”
Beitbridge district medical officer Dr Lenos Samhere said they had opened up more vaccination points in the town at the main district hospital, Dulivhadzimu, Tshitaudze, Wellness, ZRP, and Prisons clinics.
Online Reporter