Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. By James Muonwa, Mashonaland West Correspondent – THE Ministry of Health this Monday started rolling out vaccinations of Sinopharm doses in the country’s provinces and districts.
Chief director of curator services in the ministry, Maxwell Razor Hove, said frontline health workers were expected to take the lead and volunteer to be inoculated as Health Minister and Vice President Constantino Chiwenga had taken the first jab to demonstrate the safety of the Sinopharm vaccine.
Hove was Monday jabbed at Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital in a bid to demystify myths and misconceptions over the vaccine’s safety and efficacy.
“We have come to demonstrate to our healthcare workers that this vaccine we are distributing for them to be vaccinated and protected against the pandemic is not a vaccine we’re just pushing to them, but we’re also getting ourselves.
“By me coming to receive mine here, they have seen evidence as they are the healthcare workers in the district who have vaccinated me… that is very important,” said Hove.
The chief director said all adults aged over 18 years can be vaccinated while those aged 60 and above can also be jabbed as long as they do not present any contraindications or have underlying conditions such as hypertension and diabetes.
Hove allayed fears over the safety of the Sinopharm vaccine saying the country settled for the Chinese manufacturer over Pfizer and Mordena vaccines because it had proven to be safe and drastically reversed Covid-19 symptoms.
“Sinopharm is a traditional vaccine like all others we have administered on children and has been tested on humans. The others were manufactured in laboratories and have not been tested on people, that’s why we chose Sinopharm,” said Hove.
Mashonaland West provincial nursing officer, Farai Marufu confirmed all the seven districts had received their share of the vaccine for the successful roll-out of the 10-day vaccination programme.
The vaccine distribution profile saw Chegutu receive 479, Hurungwe (874), Kariba (521), Makonde (875), Mhangura (301), Sanyati (1 023) and Zvimba got 1 043.
The initial vaccination exercise is targeted to reach 6 058 frontline health workers, state security personnel, immigration and border staff and journalists.
