Health and Child Care Deputy Minister Dr John Mangwiro
yesterday confirmed the impending delivery of the latest order and said more
orders for a regular supply were being made.
“We will be receiving the next batch of 500 000 this
Saturday. We want to keep the supply of vaccines consistent so we have already
made orders for more vaccines. The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development
is handling the procurement, but we definitely want to keep the vaccines
coming,” he said.
By Sunday night 435 668 people had been fully vaccinated
with both doses, and with another 267 397 people having had their first dose
and now awaiting their second dose.
While stocks are kept back for the guaranteed second jabs,
there has been a slowdown in first jabs recently while the new order is
awaited, but with the new order of 500 000 doses another 250 000 can get both
jabs.
Treasury set aside US$100 million for the procurement of
vaccines and so far, 1,2 million Sinovac doses have been bought from China to
add to 400 000 Sinopharm doses donated by China and the 100 000 Sinopharm doses
from the from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army for the Zimbabwe Defence
Forces.
An additional 35 000 doses have come from India and last
week diamond producer Alrosa, which has operations in Zimbabwe, delivered 25
000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V with a second batch set to be delivered
soon.
The need for increased supply of vaccines comes as the
country has been experiencing a surge of Covid-19 cases which have forced
Government to introduce localised lockdowns in Kariba, Karoi, Makonde and
Kwekwe districts.
According to the Ministry of Health and Child Care
Situation Report, active cases have gone up to 2 923 as of Sunday from 775 on
June 1. The increased infection rate is reflected in the recovery rate falling
to 89 percent from 94 percent at the start of the month. This means that 11
percent of all those who have fallen ill since March last year are still ill.
The total number of Covid-19 cases recorded since the
pandemic was detected in March last year is now at 41 779 with 1672 deaths.
Tighter lockdown restrictions have been put in place in
Kariba, Hurungwe and Makonde districts to slow infection rates in a new
hotspot.
Enforcement is strict, with police in Kariba, for example,
arresting at least 83 people for violating lockdown regulations since Saturday
as people continue to ignore prevention and protective protocols. Herald
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