BULAWAYO – President Emmerson Mnangagwa sought to allay concerns over the enduring shortages of Covid-19 vaccines on Thursday, telling a gathering in Bulawayo that the country will receive more jabs “in the course of the month.”
As supplies continue to dwindle, authorities across the country have been forced to scale back immunizations, with available doses being earmarked for those taking their second shot.
Restive jab seekers at Wilkins Hospital, Zimbabwe’s main Covid-19 vaccination center in Harare, staged an impromptu demonstration on Wednesday after queuing in vain for hours.
“I urge the nation to continue adhering to the World Health Organization guidelines and protocols,” Mnangagwa said while officiating at the Bulawayo Arts Festival (BAF).
“During the course of the month, we will be receiving more vaccine doses. The City of Bulawayo is set to host major economic activities and I urge all those who are eligible to get vaccinated to ensure that the province attains herd immunity.”
Over the past three weeks or so, thousands of Zimbabweans have been turned away at various immunization centres with Harare and Bulawayo seemingly the hardest hit.
Deputy health minister John Mangwiro told ZimLive government was reorganising the distribution of doses – sources mainly from China and India – to supply the severely affected centres.
“We have distributed almost over 600,000 doses countrywide and if we double that amount it goes up to 1.2 million which includes those who have had the second dose,” Mangwiro said.
“We have received almost 1.7 million doses, which means we haven’t yet finished the outstanding, maybe 250,000 plus. There are concerns but when we made distributions, it was done equally.
“There is slow uptake in certain areas then there are areas such as Harare and Bulawayo where there is much uptake rising as compared to the initial days,” the deputy minister explained.
Without offering specific timelines like Mnangagwa, Mangwiro said the delivery of more vaccines was imminent.
“What needs to be done is to reorganise, distributing vaccines to places in need, for instance in Bulawayo we brought about 50,400 doses last week,” Mangwiro said. “We now wait for the next batch of some vaccines which is coming very soon.”
Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa told a press briefing this week that the anticipated shipment was of 500,000 Sinopharm doses from China.
As of Thursday, some 684,164 people had received their first coronavirus shot while 364,340 had been fully vaccinated, a rather insignificant figure given the country’s long-shot target of inoculating 10 million citizens by December.
Five deaths were recorded from the respiratory illness, taking the toll of fatalities to 1,604 while infections increased to 39,092, with 36,680 recoveries.
