Chronicle Editor
Thandeka Moyo-Ndlovu, Senior Health Reporter
ABOUT 25 percent of eligible people have been vaccinated against Covid-19 in Matabeleland South, which has recorded the least number of vaccinated individuals in the country.
To date, a total of 2 091 550 people have received their first Covid-19 vaccine while 1 254 206 have received their second dose.
In Matabeleland South which is home to two busy border towns, Beitbridge and Plumtree, only 107 861 people have received their first dose while 60 435 have received their second dose.
In an interview, Matabeleland South provincial medical director Dr Rudo Chikodzore said despite the seemingly low figure, targeted people had been reached.
“Absolute numbers need to be interpreted with caution. We need to factor in the target population. Matabeleland provinces have the lowest population compared to other provinces in the country. Our Target population is about 414 000 and we need to vaccinate about 230 000 people to reach a coverage of 60 percent,” said Dr Chikodzore.
“As of last week we had vaccinated over 100 000 with the first dose. In terms of allocation of vaccines we have received the least due to our low target population.”
She said the province was facing challenges like other provinces although the vaccination programme was progressing well.
“Of course we have challenges like any other provinces but generally since we received the vaccines, our programme is doing well. We moved from around 35 000 vaccinated people to more than 100 000 in about four weeks.”
Dr Chikodzore said some of the people being vaccinated in the province were people on transit hence the figure of people receiving the second dose was low.
Community Working Group on Health programmes officer Mrs Nonjabulo Ncube said vaccine hesitancy is mostly due to low-risk perception and limited information on vaccines.
“We need to up our game on information dissemination so that we dispel myths and misconceptions around vaccines. People still lack information around the vaccination and they tend to find reasons why they are not vaccinated even when the rollout is now for everyone,” said Mrs Ncube.
She said there was a need to increase awareness to address the problem of fear caused by myths and misconceptions.
Mrs Ncube called on community leaders including church leaders to take the lead in raising awareness.
“Opinion leaders have a very important role to play because they are able to change the people’s mindset and dispel these vaccines myths,” she said.
The Matabeleland South Covid-19 coordinator who is also Minister of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Cde Mangaliso Ndlovu said despite the challenge, the province had done well in vaccinating the target population compared to other provinces.
“We may have the lowest figures compared to other provinces but the bottom line is we have done well in ensuring our target population gets vaccinated. People should also understand that people in Matabeleland South are not as many as those in other provinces but we are vaccinating as many as possible given the numbers of doses that we were allocated,” he said.
Chief Nyangazonke said the other challenge remains distances travelled to the nearest health centre as many are forced to travel more than 20 km.
He said the outbreak of Covid-19 came with job losses meaning only a handful can afford to commute to the clinics as buses are not available at the moment.
“The bottom line is that there are mixed feelings with regards to the vaccine which is being rolled out. We wish we could meet people together with healthcare workers but we cannot because of restrictions.
“Some of our people do not have network coverage and they can only access networks from South Africa and Botswana meaning they are not in touch with what is happening in their communities,” said Chief Nyangazonke.
He said the health institutions in the province were very few hence the need to introduce mobile clinics to service areas far away from vaccination centres. -@thamamoe
Online Reporter
Londile Moyo