Health Reporter

Vice President and Health and Child Care Minister, Constantino Chiwenga has received the first shot of the Sinopharm vaccine, amid pessimists’ speculation on the drug being unsafe.

Silencing critiques who were arguing on the unreliability of the vaccine, the Vice President was the first to receive the dose at Wilkins Hospital in Harare, this Thursday, in the presence of the media.

Receiving a volley of praise on social media over the move, netizens took turns to applaud him for this move.

“It was important for him to lead by example, given all the scepticism and misinformation. I applaud him for that,” said one netizen, Blessing Shadaya.

“Leadership, walking the talk. Commendable, at least now some of us can follow suit. This will certainly instill confidence in some of us,” said Tariro Rukuni.

“This is good, the more the people get vaccinated, the faster we can reach herd immunity and reduce the chance of the virus spreading,” said Chichi.

VP Chiwenga volunteered to be the first person to take the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine received from China on Monday. The country is still expected to buy an extra 600,000 doses from China.

Health frontline workers at Wilkins are next in line to receive the Sinopharm jab as the vaccination roll out kicks off in the capital.