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GOVERNMENT continues to act on the global Covid-19 crisis, despite attempts by anti-Zimbabwean elements to paint a picture of a crisis stemming from poor leadership.

Like all crises, Covid-19 was unexpected and unpredictable. Today we are in a third wave, tomorrow we are almost free of the pandemic.
All Government can do is act.

And on the ground, the evidence is there for all to see: Government has put in place a number of measures to mitigate the crisis.

The most important of such measures is undoubtedly the mass vaccination exercise. This is because herd immunity can suppress new infections to zero.

Herd immunity occurs when a large portion of a community becomes immune to a disease, making its spread from person to person unlikely.

Zimbabwe’s free and voluntary vaccination programme aims to reach 10 million citizens to achieve herd immunity.
As of July 11, a total of 895 980 people had received the first jab and 595 417 the second one.

In Bulawayo, Government on Monday rolled out the mass vaccination which is largely targeting all adults above the age of 18.

The metropolitan province is targeting to inoculate 400 000 residents to achieve herd immunity.

The country received two million doses of Sinovac vaccines last Thursday from China which saw Bulawayo and Harare receiving 100 000 doses each, while eight other provinces got 50 000 doses each.

Last week, Bulawayo rolled out a vaccination exercise targeting 15 000 informal traders within 10 days and vaccinated over 7 000 vendors in four days.

The national Covid-19 vaccination programme started in all 62 districts in February targeting frontline health workers and other key personnel at high risk of infection.

To further protect health workers who are probably the most exposed of frontliners, Government has to date paid $98 million to 1 749 health workers who contracted Covid-19 in the line of duty as an insurance payout.

A total of 4 444 health workers have been infected by the pandemic since the beginning of the outbreak last year.

More payments are expected from Treasury so that the infected all receive the Covid-19 insurance payments.

Health workers have been given a July 14 deadline to get inoculated or forfeit the Covid-19 risk allowance if they get infected and are not immunised from that deadline going forward.

These and other efforts by Government have gone a long way in making Zimbabwe as safe as possible, and start the process of rebuilding post-Covid-19.

While naysayers have been trying to rubbish Government programmes, they cannot change what is actually happening on the ground.

History will never forget that some of these pessimists, at the beginning of the year, tried to dissuade Zimbabweans from getting vaccinated, citing all sorts of negative theories about vaccines.

Fortunately, the Second Republic Government led by President Mnangagwa has mastered the art of proving cynics wrong.

And soon when the rollout of the national vaccination exercise is over, herd immunity will be achieved and life after Covid-19 within grasp, leaving naysayers with egg on face.