Staff Reporter
The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) has warned individual health personnel who are making people pay for COVID-19 vaccination that the long arm of the law will soon catch up with them.
Posting on its Twitter handle yesterday, ZACC said, “It has come to our attention that there are unscrupulous individuals charging citizens a fee to get COVID-19 vaccinations. This behaviour is uncalled for as it hampers Government efforts to achieve herd immunity. The culprits will be arrested and arraigned before the courts of law.”
ZACC cited one Dr Michael Mandaza of Mabvuku's Pacific 24 Hour Hospital who they said had been arrested for defrauding patients by conducting fake laboratory tests at his hospital. Dr Mandaza (43) is also accused of money laundering. He is in custody and is expected to appear in court soon.
Government has already made it clear that the COVID-19 vaccines it is procuring coupled with some being donated by friendly nations like China would be distributed to citizens for free.
Meanwhile, addressing the media during a Post Cabinet media Briefing yesterday, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa informed the nation that vaccination was now open to everybody, with frontline personnel still being prioritized at vaccination centres.
The Minister said Cabinet was pleased to note that citizens across the country continue to present themselves for vaccination in large numbers adding that massive vaccination would also be extended to rural areas which are identified as hotspots.
Minister Mutsvangwa highlighted that the worst affected provinces in the country were Mashonaland West with (2 107), Mashonaland Central (1 142), Harare Metropolitan (1 894), Mashonaland East (1 658) and Midlands (1 058) cases. Minister Mutsvangwa noted that the surge in cases had led to an increase in demand for beds, hence Government was expediting the full capacitation of isolation and treatment centres throughout the country.
The Minister further highlighted that the country remained under Level 4 lockdown following the surge in COVID-19 cases adding that the Vehicle Inspection Department (VID) and police had escalated enforcement of lockdown measures for public transport operations, including the banning of intercity travel.
Meanwhile, as at 13 July, 2021, Zimbabwe had 73 271 confirmed cases, including 48 102 recoveries and 2 284 deaths. To date, a total of 955 656 people have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
