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Mukudzei Chingwere Herald Reporter

The year 2021 will go down as Zimbabwe’s best in the field of public health management in recent memory as well as healthcare system best practices in general.

The country’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign, which kicked off in February 2021 was envied by many.

Zimbabwe prioritised improving the country’s healthcare system under President Mnangagwa’s administration.

This saw international partners praising the country’s efforts.

Rabid critics, too, were forced to eat humble pie and salute the practices.

This follows praises across the globe that Zimbabwe had defied odds to mount a thorough and effective response to the Covid-19 pandemic managing to minimise the effects of the disease on its citizenry.

While Covid-19 ravaged economies the world over, Zimbabwe despite not having advanced health systems compared to other countries in the first world, to its credit fared reasonably well despite many thinking there would be a total disaster.

The People’s Republic of China praised Zimbabwe’s response and the World Health Organisation (WHO)  was equally impressed.

WHO identified the vaccines against Covid-19 as the best way forward in mitigating the effects of the virus.

The Government took it upon themselves to avail doses for free as a way of ensuring universal health coverage. Despite assurances by the WHO, the biggest setback for these vaccines across the world was hesitancy as ordinary people were reluctant to take the shots citing unverified health concerns.

Here, Vice President and Minister of Health and Child Care Dr Constantino Chiwenga volunteered to become the first person to be vaccinated against Covid-19 at a ceremony that signalled the commencement of the country’s vaccination programme in February.

Against a background of safety pessimism from some quotas, which persisted even after WHO reassurances, VP Chiwenga volunteered to become the first local recipient of the vaccine to assure health care workers who were set to benefit from the first phase of the vaccination programme.

This earned him praises from  President Mnangagwa for the encouragement he brought to the exercise.

President Mnangagwa was also immunised in public when he took his first shot in Victoria Falls.

The selfless public act by the Presidium might be credited for a spontaneous vaccine uptake that ensued in the preceding weeks. In other countries the vaccination campaign was slow.

Vaccines were not readily available unlike in Zimbabwe, which committed US$100 million for the purchase of the shots in the first phase before an additional US$40 million was released by the Treasury.

China facilitated the smooth purchase of shots coming into Zimbabwe and also donated some jabs.

The world started to notice in admiration. Zimbabwe has also received donations from other countries and joined several facilities for vaccine purchase. In the same vein Zimbabwe also donated some vaccines to Namibia.

An Australian lawmaker implored Sydney to copy Zimbabwe’s example in a scathing rebuke of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government over its mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Julian Hill, the Federal Member for Bruce said by June last year only 2,7 percent of Australians had been fully vaccinated and told his parliament that Zimbabwe had done well in this regard.

“Only 2,7 percent of Australians have been fully vaccinated. Zimbabwe is doing better,” said Hill.

He noted that the vaccination process in his country had become elitist, against a background that the country boasted a Gross Domestic Product of more than US$1,397 trillion.

However, in Zimbabwe the process was free with various awareness campaigns to encourage people to get their jabs.

Hill’s praise came barely a week after South African opposition leader and rabid critic of the Second Republic, Mr Julius Malema, admitted that he was contemplating taking his Covid-19 vaccine in Zimbabwe.

“People are being vaccinated in Zimbabwe. I am also considering going to Zimbabwe to get my vaccination. We are going to die before we are vaccinated,” then said Mr Malema.

“You were chasing Zimbabweans away and saying they are taking your jobs. It looks like you are going to be chased away when you go to look for a vaccine in Zimbabwe.”

In August the then outgoing US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Brian Nichols said.

“Zimbabwe has had important progress in key areas like vaccination, its number three on the continent in terms of Covod-19 vaccines.”

In an interview with The Herald in November, the Chargé d’Affaires of the United States to Harare Mr Thomas Hastings hailed the trajectory the health system was taking saying Zimbabwe was on track to meet the UNAIDS 2030 goals.

“When the Covid-19 pandemic arrived on the scene two years ago, Governments all over the world had to react. The Government of Zimbabwe has done quite well, particularly compared with the rest of Africa in vaccinating its population.

“It’s one of the countries to vaccinate a larger share of its population in a relatively short period of time. This is the Government of Zimbabwe’s own efforts and it also builds upon the partnership we have had in strengthening the health sector here over many years,” said Mr Hastings.

United Arab Emirates Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Dr Jassim Al Qasimi, last month also hailed the Government of Zimbabwe.

“I want to highlight that we recognise the great initiatives put in place by the Government of Zimbabwe in the health sector. The Emirates have always admired the Zimbabwean government for this,” said Ambassador Al Qasimi.

The German Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Udo Volz, also hailed local initiatives.

Asked the secret behind such success VP Chiwenga shared, “our response has been a combination of health promotion and prevention measures based on raising awareness and community mobilisation.

“The whole of Government and society’s approach helped the country to reduce transmission and Covid-19 associated morbidities and mortalities,” said VP Chiwenga.

The successes were not only related to Covid-19, but in 2021 Zimbabwe showed that it was poised to benefit from medical tourism.

This follows the queuing by foreigners to get Covid-19 vaccines while local surgeons were authorised to help separate conjoined twins from Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon.

The appeal from the two countries follows the successful operations carried out at Sally Mugabe Central Hospital early 2021 and another in 2014.

Zimbabwe’s standing as a leader in healthcare provision in the region saw Mozambicans crossing the border institutions to get medical assistance.

Mozambicans and Zimbabweans living in that country were using both the formal and informal entry points to access Nyamapanda Clinic, located less than a kilometre from the                                       border.

There was also a massive infrastructural development thrust which medical professionals say Zimbabwe’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic has improved facilities at health institutions, boosting the quality of health care and people will benefit long term.

President Mnangagwa declared the pandemic a state of disaster from the outset, leading to improved Government resource allocation for the health sector, as well as marshalling the private sector to come on board and help the Government to boost health care delivery.

Provincial medical directors (PMDs) across the country said investments done so far will improve the health system beyond the pandemic.