Zimpapers Logo

Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
GOVERNMENT has mobilised enough resources to roll out a mass vaccination programme in the country’s border towns where most residents are at high risk, as they are largely dependent on economic activities related to cross-border trade and also meet those in transit.

This was said by the chief director in the Ministry of Health and Child Care Dr Maxwell Hove yesterday after meeting community leaders in Beitbridge and other stakeholders.

Among the stakeholders were clergymen, businesspeople, politicians, educationists, heads of Government departments, and other private organisations.

Dr Hove said it was critical for the country to achieve herd immunity in border towns where residents are at risk whenever there are new epidemics.

He said for Beitbridge urban, they were targeting to vaccinate at least 26 000 adults from the age of 18 to 80 years.

The chief director is visiting Matabeleland South with a team of national health experts to promote the mass vaccination initiative in border towns.

“We all know that the spread of Covid-19 is mostly by travellers. This disease started somewhere far in the east but ended up throughout the world and mainly being transmitted by those who were travelling either by air, road, or sea,” said Dr Hove.

“Our first case in Zimbabwe was brought from the United Kingdom and our first death was of person who came from New York and all these people are travellers.”

Dr Hove said after carrying out a lot of scientific tests they had proved that the most severe Covid-19 variant which had more infections and many deaths had been imported from South Africa.

He said the vaccination of the majority of adults in the border towns will help to attain herd immunity in such communities and protect the residents from the coronavirus.

“The uptake of the vaccine started off on a very low note. It is now peaking as we roll out more awareness campaigns and engage with the community leaders to unpack the information relating to the vaccines.

“You will note that there has been a lot of misinformation on the citizens through various social media platforms. Currently, we have teams which are hard at work demystifying fake these theories,” said Dr Hove.

He said migrants or foreigners who are permanently resident in the country will be immunised as Government presses ahead to reach national herd immunity of 10 million.

“In our context, traditionally manufactured vaccines have proved to be effective, for instance, if we look at the ones we are using for diseases like polio,” he said.

Dr Hove said the mass vaccination programme will soon be rolled out in rural communities along the border as they meet border jumpers. — @tupeyo