Staff Reporter

Zimbabwe yesterday took delivery of another batch of 800 000 Sinopharm vaccines from China as the fight against the third wave of the coronavirus continues and is expecting to receive another shipment of 700 000 Sinopharm vaccines today.

Zimbabwe has also paid for 5 million doses to be delivered between now and September.

The country has to date received 6 085 000 vaccines including several batches of Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines from China and small quantities of Russia's Sputnik V and India's Covaxin vaccines.

The Zimbabwe Medicines Control Authority yesterday approved the emergency use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine against COVID-19, becoming the first Western vaccine approved for use against the Coronavirus in the country.

The country has so far authorized the use of five COVID-19 vaccines which are Sinopharm, Sinovac, Sputnik V, Covaxin from India and Johnson and Johnson.

Zimbabwe’s vaccination programme and vaccine acquisition programme is going very well and the latest delivery comes at a time when the country is scaling up its vaccination program in the wake of the third wave of infections.

More than 1.5 million people in Zimbabwe have received their first jab, and nearly 700 000 have received their second dose since the vaccination program started in February. The country is targeting to inoculate at least 10 million of its approximately 15 million citizens by year-end to achieve herd immunity.

Meanwhile as at 28 July 2021, Zimbabwe had 103 567 confirmed cases, including 71 383 recoveries and 3 340 deaths. To date, a total of 1 562 285 people have been vaccinated against Covid-19.

The country saw its worst day in terms of pandemic-related deaths on Tuesday when 107 deaths were recorded in 24 hours.