Staff Writer

The Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) says it is ramping up vaccination literacy in the country in a bid to increase vaccine uptake amongst locals.

In a statement to commemorate World Health Day this Wednesday, the Ministry of Health spokesperson, Donald Mujiri said that Government was continuing to source vaccines to augment the current inoculation programme, at the same time channelling more resources towards vaccine literacy.

“As we continue the fight against Covid 19, we urge all our citizens to ensure that they get vaccinated. As announced, the Covid 19 vaccine centres will be decentralized to ensure that everyone gets the jab,” Mujiri said.

Government through the MoHCC also vowed to do more on vaccine literacy through enhanced public campaigns in order to popularise the vaccine roll-out plan and to dispel myths and misconceptions propagated by the ill-informed.

“We also intend to promote demand and uptake of vaccines and expand the geographic reach of the program as Government continue sourcing for more,” he added.

This year’s World Health Day was rallying under the theme ‘Building a fairer, healthier world for everyone’.

Zimbabwe has so far received over 1 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine made from a Chinese firm, Sinovac. Last month, Zimbabwe received its first batch of 200,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine donated by the Chinese Government.

By Monday this week, about 69,751 Zimbabweans had been vaccinated, a sharp rise from the 43,295 people who had received at least one jab on Monday last week.