The Zimbabwe Independent gathered that Health and Child
Care permanent secretary Jasper Chimedza, on Tuesday, ordered the international
health partners to stop, forthwith, Covid-19 activities for the next three
weeks.
A senior government official last night said Covid-19
vaccination was a sole responsibility of the government and cannot be
outsourced to “private operators or NGOs (non-governmental organisations)”.
Chimedza dropped the bombshell on the UN agencies when the
teams were preparing to monitor the ongoing vaccination of health workers by
government using Chinese-donated Sinopharm vaccines.
The Health and Child Care permanent secretary and the
deputy minister, John Mangwiro could not comment yesterday, as they were said
to be busy.
“I am in a meeting; much tied up. Can you get in touch with
me in about three or four hours,” Mangwiro said. He did not answer subsequent
phone calls.
It is understood that some programmes such as the WHO Covax
vaccination plans will go ahead as planned since the government has already
signed the memorandum of understanding.
The European Union office in Harare confirmed this in a
tweet on Wednesday: “Fabulous to see that the #Covax rollout has begun in
Africa! #Zimbabwe will also very soon get 1,152 million doses under the Covax
scheme, to which #TeamEurope is the biggest contributor”.
The reasons for the suspension were not yet clear as the
government is said to have failed to properly communicate its message to its
long-time health partners.
Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services minister
Monica Mutsvangwa said: “We are working very closely with all our partners”. However,
high level officials said the government was “on its own” after dumping WHO and
Unicef.
“All international partners in the health sector were
suspended from participating in Covid-19-related programmes. They have not been
doing anything since Tuesday,” an official, who cannot be named due to the
sensitivity of the matter, said.
“What happened is that teams from WHO, Unicef, Crown
Agents, John Snow Inc (JSI) and others had gathered at WHO offices in Harare on
Tuesday morning waiting to go for an assessment of the vaccination programme,
but the government ordered the organisations to suspend such Covid-19
activities.”
Another official added, “According to what was communicated
to us, these organisations can continue with other programmes but are not
supposed to be involved in anything to do with Covid-19. This means we are as
of now unable to train healthcare workers, support visits to health
institutions, and PPE provision.
“We were told to continue doing other programmes which have
nothing to do with Covid-19. We await government directive on the way forward.”
Unicef spokesperson James Maiden said the organisation will
continue to play its role in partnering the government in sourcing for
vaccines.
He said: “Unicef continues to play a key role in the
roll-out of vaccinations in Zimbabwe in partnership with the government and
many other development partners.
“Unicef is central to the roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccine
globally through the Covax facility and in Zimbabwe is working with the
government and other partners in preparing the country to receive and
distribute vaccines.
“This role includes preparation and technical support,
procurement of the Covax vaccines and behavioural change communications,” he
added.
Maiden went on to say: “Unicef is pivotal in supporting
many areas of the overall Covid-19 national response pillars including coordination,
risk communication and community engagement, infection prevention and control,
case management, education, supply and logistics.”
WHO country representative for Zimbabwe Alex Gasasira said
they would also continue partnering with the government in the fight against
Covid-19.
“WHO continues to work with the government of Zimbabwe and
all its institutions, including the Ministry of Health and Child Care in the
national Covid-19 response effort,” he said.
Unicef is facilitating supply of free Covid-19 vaccines in
partnership with the European Union, Geneva-based organisation Gavi the Vaccine
Alliance, which is a public-private global health partnership whose main aim is
to enable access to immunisation in poor countries, the Global Fund for Health
and other donors.
According to sources in the health sector, these
initiatives could actually see Zimbabwe vaccinate its entire population for
free before the end of the year.
Other affected organisations, which have been working
closely with the government since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country
in March last year include the Crown Agents Ltd, a non-profit international
development corporation headquartered in London, United Kingdom, and has
subsidiaries in the US and Japan.
As stated on its website, the organisation works in
partnership with governments, institutions, donors, foundations,
philanthropists and the private sector to tackle complex challenges, ranging
from procuring and delivering PPEs and vaccines.
JSI is a US-based organisation, which has been helping the
government in conducting public health research, technical and managerial
assistance to public health programmes under WHO.
ZIMBABWE INDEPENDENT
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