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Mashudu Netsianda, Senior Reporter
MENTAL health patients are being catered for under the ongoing Covid-19 mass vaccination programme in Bulawayo with nearly 600 patients at Ingutsheni Central Hospital having been vaccinated so far.

The hospital made an appeal for mental patients to be included in the national vaccination programme.

The medical institution is vaccinating patients as they come to the institution.

Ingutsheni Central Hospital is among the 19 designated health facilities that include municipal clinics and the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) where people can be inoculated following the start of the mass vaccination programme on Monday.
Scores of residents in Bulawayo have been flocking to various vaccination centres in the city to get inoculated with health personnel failing to cope due to the pressure.

The exercise is largely targeting all adults above the age of 18.

In an interview yesterday, Ingutsheni Central Hospital acting chief executive officer Dr Wellington Ranga said patients are vaccinated on a weekly basis as they get admitted to the wards.

Dr Ranga said they are offering vaccinations to new patients as they come.

“Since March we have been vaccinating our patients and so far, we have inoculated all our 598 patients in the wards. They got both their first and second doses. As Ingutsheni Central Hospital we actually made an appeal for our patients to be included in the programme,” he said.

“We are actually vaccinating those who get admitted to our wards on a weekly basis. In fact patients are vaccinated on the very week they are admitted.”

Dr Ranga said in terms of Covid-19 infections among patients, there are no cases.

“Our concept is that everyone is screened for Covid-19 on admission. If they test positive, we immediately take them to the United Bulawayo Hospitals where our staff will attend to them,” he said.

“All our admissions would be Covid-19 free and in our wards, we haven’t had patients with Covid-19.”

Bulawayo province is targeting to inoculate 400 000 residents to achieve herd immunity. Due to serious manpower shortage, some people are being turned away after exceeding the daily limit.

As part of efforts to minimise the time spent in queues, Government is in the process of roping in extra personnel from security and defence forces to boost the numbers of personnel at vaccination centres.

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.

Zimbabwe’s free and voluntary vaccination programme aims to reach 10 million citizens to achieve herd immunity.

By Tuesday, 29 344 people had received their first dose and 14 327 their second since the launch of the mass vaccination, giving a total of 955 656 and 619 883 people who had received the first and second jab respectively.

Government is targeting to vaccinate one million citizens within the next two weeks of the extended level four national lockdown.

Addressing the nation on Tuesday, President Mnangagwa said about 80 percent of all new infections recorded in the country in the past two weeks are due to the Delta variant that originated in India.

He said the country will use the extended lockdown to vaccinate a targeted one million people. As of 13 July 2021, Zimbabwe had recorded 73 271 confirmed cases, 48 102 recoveries and 2 274 deaths. — @mashnets.