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Rumbidzayi Zinyuke Senior Health Reporter
As the country continues to battle the fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, Government has stepped up efforts to strengthen and accelerate the national vaccination programme.
The vaccination drive began in February last year with the intention to reach all adult Zimbabweans, but the pace of rollout had declined towards the end of the year as complacency began to creep in.
So far 4 167 808 people have received their first dose, and of these 3 186 514 have received the second jab. The number of people who have received their booster shot now stands at 13 352.
To reach the set targets, Deputy Minister of Health and Child Care Dr John Mangwiro said there was need to increase uptake of vaccines.
“We continue to encourage people to get vaccinated because the virus is not gone yet, it is still with us. We hope to see a continued increase in the uptake of the first and second doses as well as the booster shot that we have introduced,” he said.
“We have outreach teams going out into the communities to help educate the people and make them understand the importance of getting inoculated.”
Dr Mangwiro said the Government was also encouraging churches and other people who congregated in large gatherings to continue exercising caution as well as taking the vaccines.
National Covid-19 response Coordinator Dr Agnes Mahomva said Government was still concerned with the number of Covid-related deaths being recorded in the country and implored citizens to get inoculated.
Zimbabwe has so far recorded a total of 222 291 cases and 5 160 deaths since March 2020. But almost 40 percent of those cases arise over the last six weeks as the fourth wave took hold, showing the seriousness of the needs to remain vigilant.
Dr Mahomva said efforts to strengthen the vaccination programme were continuing this year.
“We have had campaigns in every single province and district. We even included vaccination of the 16 to 17-year-olds in trying to ramp up our vaccination coverage. We continue with those strategies and the main issue is really appealing to the public to come out in their numbers to get vaccinated. It is unfortunate that sometimes people get complacent, but if you look at the number of deaths that we continue to record every single day, it means that we are not out of the woods yet,” said Dr Mahomva.
Public health experts have also added their voice to the call for strengthening of the vaccine rollout.
Community Working Group on Health executive director Mr Itai Rusike said now that the country was administering the booster shot, there was need to address the issue of vaccine literacy programmes.
He said there was need for new and encouraging messaging into communities to create demand to accelerate the degree of safety given by very high vaccination rates.
“We need sustained Covid-19 health education and information awareness activities including informed community participation and community ownership to reduce the spread of misinformation and vaccine hesitancy.
“The response to Covid-19 is not the responsibility of the health sector alone, but needs active community participation and ownership if it is to be successful and sustainable.
“There is also need to address the issue of vaccine equity in the remote locations by taking the vaccines to the people in the communities instead of waiting for the people to come to the health facilities as some people in rural areas and resettlement communities still have to walk long distances to the nearest health facilities. This may contribute to the low vaccine uptake for the first and second dose including the booster jab,” he said.
He said the Government should continue creating a balance between the demand and supply of the Covid-19 vaccines to avoid vaccine stock-outs now that more people would be requiring vaccines because of the introduction of the additional third dose.
So far, the Government has bought or been given around 20 million vaccine doses, but only 7 367 674 shots have been given and so even with unavoidable wastage there is a long way to go before anyone has to worry about stock outs.
Online Reporter