New Covid-19 vaccination blitz in December

Source: New Covid-19 vaccination blitz in December | The Herald

Health Reporter

While very few people are now coming forward for Covid-19 vaccine, although the infection is still live globally and in Zimbabwe, the Government will be having another vaccination blitz in December to coincide with the second phase of the polio vaccination campaign.

This will allow parents bringing in small children for the polio vaccine to get their own Covid-19 shots, restricted to the above 12s, on the same visit.

Zimbabwe launched its national Covid-19  vaccination campaign on February 22 last year, making it one of the first African countries to roll out vaccines. 

While there are good stocks of Covid-19 vaccine, the numbers coming forward has considerably slowed since early this year.

This might have been driven by the low number of cases and deaths that signalled that the country could have the pandemic under control. So many people simply stopped bothering.

However, Zimbabwe saw the number of new Covid-19 cases in the past week jump from 179 to 295 with 26 new hospital admissions recorded, double the 13 reported the previous week. 

Speaking after the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Acting Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Sekai Nzenza said the increases were a sign that the country needed to remain vigilant.

“The country’s Covid-19 pandemic response remains on track. However, in view of the small increase in new cases, Cabinet has resolved that all provinces include the Covid-19 vaccination activities in the second round of poliomyelitis vaccination campaign scheduled for December and that provinces continue strengthening community engagement on all Covid-19 public health and social measures in order to address the ‘Covid-19 fatigue’ being observed in most communities,” she said.

As at November 15, a total of 6 561 513 first doses have been administered while 4 930 525 people have received the second dose. Another 1 219 866 have received the booster shot.

This brings the coverage of the vaccines to 58 percent of the over-12s for first doses and 43 percent for second shots.

Zimbabwe needs to inoculate 70 percent of the total population experts say.

The roll-out of another blitz of the Covid-19 vaccine during the second phase of the polio campaign is expected to drive the numbers up as parents roll up their sleeves for their shot, while their babies and small children get a drop of polio vaccine on their tongue.

The country launched the first round of the polio vaccination blitz on October 27 and the second round is scheduled for the first four days of December targeting all children below five years of age regardless of vaccination status

The blitz included door-to-door polio mobilisation and vaccination in all areas in addition to all the health facilities in the country which were administering the polio vaccine. Special mobile teams were also covering the hard-to-reach areas.

This allows health teams to educate communities that had not yet taken up the Covid-19 vaccine while reaching out to those that were reluctant to take it or just not bothering.

“Provinces continue to prioritise Covid-19 vaccinations in all schools, with a focus on the 503 secondary schools which have not yet reached the second dose coverage target of 70 percent,” said Minister Nzenza.