UPDATED: Scores turn up for Byo mass vaccination

Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor

SCORES of people have turned up for the Covid-19 mass vaccination exercise in Bulawayo, with health officials revealing that they were also targeting people from areas in the city that have been classified as hotspots.

The government had indicated that they were targeting 15 000 market vendors by the end of the exercise.

Bulawayo city health services director, Dr Edwin Sibanda in an interview,  revealed that they were also targeting people from areas that have been classified as hotspots. Three clinical districts in the city- Nkulumane, Emakhandeni and Northern Suburbs- have been classified as hotspots.

“The idea was to vaccinate informal traders, but we have also included people from areas which have been classified as hotspots therefore we believe that the target which we have been given by the Ministry of Health and Child Care of 15 000 over the next ten days will be achieved in at least three days. When we look at our previous data, when all our points are vaccinating, we were recording up to 4 000 a day therefore to get to that 15 000 it can take us at least three days, at most four days,” said Dr Sibanda.

He said their fear now was going to be the shortage of doses saying that their teams were ready on the ground to inoculate as much people as possible. Suburbs covered by the Nkulumane clinical district, include Nkulumane, Pelandaba, Sizinda, Nketa, Emganwini and Barham Green. Emakhandeni clinical district covers Cowdray Park, Njube, Luveve, Magwegwe suburbs, Pumula suburbs and Emakhandeni. The northern suburbs include Mpopoma, Mzilikazi, Nguboyenja, Makokoba and city centre.

Sunday News online on today visited the Large City Hall and observed that the police were barricading the door and asking people to produce their informal traders’ licences in a bid to control the number of people accessing the vaccination point.

Commenting on the exercise Bulawayo Vendors and Traders Association’s executive director, Mr Michael Ndiweni said it was a welcome development as they had been advocating that the informal sector be also included in the vaccination programme.

“We welcome the vaccination drive because it is what we have been advocating for and we are happy that the government has responded. We are calling on traders to respond also and get vaccinated because this is the only way that we can achieve herd immunity and be able to work as informal traders,” said Mr Ndiweni.

Posting on his Twitter account on Monday, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Mr Nick Mangwana said the vaccination drive was embarked on after noting that market places had been classified as hotspots.

“Bulawayo: Tomorrow (Tuesday) 6 July will see the start of a 10-day Covid 19 vaccination program targeting 15 000 informal traders at market places largely considered as hotspots. The program will commence at the City hall, Renkini (bus terminus), Sokusile (shopping centre) and will roll out to other market places in the city,” said Mr Mangwana.

Bulawayo is targeting to vaccinate at least 400 000 residents to achieve herd immunity amid soaring cases and deaths which have been experienced over the past few days.

According to figures from the Ministry of Health and Child Care, as at Monday the country recorded 1 540 new cases and 33 deaths.

Country’s recovery rate continues to decline as it stood at 64 percent with active cases going up to 12 697.