Staff Reporter
Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema has lauded Zimbabwe’s vaccination programme, saying very soon South Africans will be illegally crossing the boarder to seek vaccination in Zimbabwe as the country is experiencing serious vaccine shortage.
“People are being vaccinated in Zimbabwe. I am also considering to go to Zimbabwe and get my vaccination because here according to the line up they will give vaccination to me and you my men in the grave. We are all going to die before vaccinated.
“You were chasing Zimbabweans away saying they are taking your jobs, they are doing this and that, it looks like you are going to be chased away when you go to look for vaccines in Zimbabwe because vaccine is available in Zimbabwe,” says Malema.
Zimbabwe has so far defied the odds with thorough and effective response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) recently lavished praise on the path Zimbabwe’s health system is taking, saying they were encouraged by the progress that is being registered, with an increasing number of people being reached and vaccinated against Covid-19.
Zimbabwe was recently rated as a low risk destination for travellers by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, in what analysts say was a clear endorsement of the country’s sound and effective Covid-19 response.
On February 18 2021, Zimbabwe was one of the first countries in the WHO African region to launch the roll out of Covid-19 vaccination, a manifestation of the country’s leadership in dealing with the pandemic in the African region and globally.
Early this week the country received 25 000 doses of Sputnik V vaccine from Russia through Alrosa Zimbabwe and thousands other doses from China. The country is also expecting another batch of 500 000 doses of vaccine by 15 June 2021 as the fight against the pandemic continues.
The country’s vaccination programme aims to reach 10 million citizens and achieve a herd immunity of 60 percent of the entire population.
To date a total of 690 452 people in Zimbabwe have been vaccinated against Covid-19. As at 10 June 2021, Zimbabwe had 39 496 confirmed cases, including 36 940 recoveries and 1626 deaths.
