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Herald Reporter

Despite missing the December 2021 vaccination targets, Government is now pushing hard to reach set targets of vaccinating around 60 percent of the population against Covid-19. 

Government had set an ambitious target of reaching out to all 9,4 million people aged 16 and over by December 31 and had even managed to procure enough vaccine doses to achieve this.

However, only 3,1 million people had received two doses by December 31 as fewer people stood in line, despite the doses being available and the vaccination teams deployed.

National Covid-19 response coordinator Dr Agnes Mahomva said no new deadlines for getting the full vaccination done had been set yet but the Government was still seized with accelerating the vaccine rollout.

“Our target is still to reach 60 percent of the population but we have not set new deadlines yet. We are pushing to reach the figures as fast as we can,” she said. 

Vaccinating the full 9,4 million will bring Zimbabwe’s vaccination rate to 62,6 percent, meaning that just about all those eligible have to be jabbed.

Government has been conducting outreach programmes in all districts across the country in a bid to increase communities’ understanding of the importance of getting inoculated.

So far, 4 206 094 people have received their first dose by Sunday night with 3 232 122 of those having gone in for their second dose. A total of 26 361 people have received the booster shot.

 The country is still in the fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and experts have maintained that vaccination remains the only hope of beating the pandemic.

Zimbabwe has so far recorded a total of 226 078 cases and 5 247 deaths since March 2020. 

There have been calls by public health experts for the Government to create new and encouraging messaging to generate demand for the vaccines in communities and accelerate towards achieving full coverage.

While purchases and gifts have ensured that supplies are fully adequate for vaccination, the onus remains on citizens to take up the vaccines to ensure that they are protected from the pandemic.