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Bongani Ndlovu, Online Reporter

ZIMBABWE has received an additional one million doses of the World Health Organisation approved Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine as the country continues with its herd immunity drive.

The vaccines arrived at the Robert Mugabe International airport and were received by Finance Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube.

The Minister said more vaccines are expected this week.

“Walking the Talk: Zimbabwe today received an additional 1 million doses of World Health Organization approved Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines. We expect to receive an additional 1.5 million vaccines later this week,” he posted on Twitter.

Prof Ncube said Zimbabwe has received more than five million vaccines as part of the country’s economic recovery programme.

“To date, #Zimbabwe has received over 5 million vaccine doses. Saving lives and livelihoods: vaccination programme is part of Zimbabwe’s economic recovery strategy,” said Prof Ncube.

The Government is on a massive vaccination drive and more than one million people have received their first jab, as the country continues in its drive to attain herd immunity.

The Ministry of Health and Child Care has extended the Covid-19 vaccination programme to private health facilities at hotspots around Zimbabwe.

The institutions have been allowed to charge a nominal fee of injection by doctor of $434,35, an injection by a nurse at $220,64

Zimbabwe has authorised the use of the Chinese Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines, as well as Russia’s Sputnik V and India’s Covaxin.

To date, a total of 1 438 890 people has received their first dose against Covid-19, while 677 774 have received the second dose.

As at 24 July 2021, Zimbabwe had 97 277 confirmed cases, including 64 628 recoveries and 3 050 deaths

-@bonganinkunzi