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The Ministry of Health and Child Care did a magnificent job last week mobilising vaccination teams from all sources to hand out 634 402 doses of Covid-19 vaccine in the first week of the present blitz between Monday last week and Sunday.

That, plus the fact that adequate stocks of vaccine and syringes plus a proper supply chain have been in place for eight months now, shows that the main problem of low turnouts in the vaccination queues since September last year has been largely one of people not coming forward, not that the ministry is unable to cope.

Admittedly, last week’s magnificent effort also involved another group of highly efficient professionals, the school heads in both the public and private sectors.

A lot of those doses last week were given to children aged 12 and above when vaccination teams visited schools.

The heads obviously had everything ready.

Many of these children have yet to reach 16 and so do not have ID cards, but they have birth certificates and since for a quarter century the birth certificate number and the ID number are the same, the heads obviously have these on record along with the dates of birth, so they know how old the children are.

Having the school record book at the vaccination point obviously speeds everything up.

While parents are entitled to give or refuse permission for Covid-19 vaccination, almost all heads use the opt-out system.

Parents are told that a vaccination team is coming and if they want to refuse vaccination for their children they need to inform the head with silence implying consent.

Few did opt out, even if the parents themselves had yet to stand in the queue for their shots.

It is easy to understand why all heads are keen on vaccination. First they have the responsibility of ensuring the safety of the children they teach, and in a Covid-19 world that means vaccination is a big plus.

And secondly every head wants to avoid, or at least minimise, any outbreak in the school, again implying vaccination of just about everyone eligible is a good idea.

No doubt the same smooth efficiency of visiting vaccination teams and school heads will be seen again when the second doses become due.

Just under 500 000 first doses were administered in the first seven days of the blitz, and even the third booster shot total of more than 86 000 was good as the keen people who were fully vaccinated as early as possible are now coming forward since the have gone through the minimum of six months between their second and third shots.

There appears to be a problem with many of those who had their first dose, but have yet to come for the second.

Just before the blitz, and that huge surge of first doses, there were 973 333 people who had been given the first dose but not the second. Yet in the previous four weeks only 77 236 first doses were given, and this is the only group that should have been waiting for the second dose.

There were 896 097 people who had not returned when they could for their second dose, and that is a huge, and very worrying, figure.

Perhaps some progress was made in the first week of the blitz when 48 970 people turned up for a second dose, which was a lot better than what we have seen in recent weeks. But that still leaves a huge number who have waited well beyond four weeks for their second shot.

At present the third doses each day easily exceed the second doses, despite the large backlog in those who should have come forward for their second dose. The third dose people are the enthusiasts for vaccination though so it is perhaps natural.

So far, only those in Government service have to had both shots, although several private companies have put pressure on staff to get both and a booster.

In theory every bar, restaurant, nightclub, gym and sports club should be demanding sight of a full vaccination card before letting anyone in, but it is almost impossible to find anyone ever checking their customers.

Part of the blitz, the part to get those who have put off until “tomorrow” their second dose to turn up at their local health centre, plus the need to get the more than half the adult population to even get their first dose, should be to insist that those in the social and entertainment sectors do follow the law and ask to see the vaccination cards.

Many carry pictures of their card on their phones, or have a photocopy, and this seems adequate for the quick screening required as a security guard glances over the document or copy or picture.

At least it puts pressure on the adult population to get organised and get their shots.

It is also worrying that while Bulawayo now has 57 percent of its over 12s with a first dose and 46,7 percent fully vaccinated, the totals for Harare are 39,4 percent with first dose and 30,5 percent with the second dose.

Chitungwiza was really bad but blitz effort has seen its first dose percentage to rise to 38,6, almost the Harare level, although the second dose percentage is only 24,1 percent as a result of slow progress earlier.

Harare people are often a bit dismissive of Bulawayo as a backward city. But when it comes to health our second city obviously knows what it is doing.

It no doubt helps that both the heads of Mpilo Central Hospital and the city health department have thrown a lot of weight and resources into the vaccination programme and done a lot to mobilise their city’s population.

The same urge for good health and the same mobilisation can be seen in Matabeleland North and Manicaland, who are both not that far behind Bulawayo.

Part of this is because they are border provinces, but a lot must be the mobilisation efforts.

Matabeleland North now has the highest third dose percentage, and that must be partly explained by the fanaticism for vaccination shown by the population of Victoria Falls, which went flat out at the beginning of the vaccination programme since it wanted the tourists back and now wants to keep them.

The big mining companies around Hwange are almost certainly routinely urging all staff to get their jabs since the last thing you need as a miner is an outbreak on a shift.

The blitz has certainly shown initial success and the Health ministry can be congratulated on its efforts. We now all need to respond to this and if we are missing some jabs then we need to take advantage of what is arranged and get them.