Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. Human rights doctors have expressed concern over the low uptake of COVID-19 vaccines across the country.
Despite purchasing over a million vaccines, Zimbabwe still has a long way to go in inoculating its essential service providers, let alone attaining herd immunity.
In a statement to mark World Health Day commemorations, the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) urged the government to popularise the vaccine roll-out plan and increase the geographic reach of the programme. ZADHR said:
ZADHR notes the poor uptake of vaccination across the country and urges the Ministry of Health and Child Care to do more on vaccine literacy through enhanced public campaigns to popularise the vaccine roll-out plan and on dispelling myths and misconceptions for the purposes of promoting demand for, and uptake of vaccines in the country.
We also urge the government of Zimbabwe to invest more in financing the procurement of more vaccines and expanding the geographic reach of the programme.
As of Tuesday, 6 April 2021, 139 133 people had received their first doses of the vaccines, while 23 500 had received their second jabs.
Zimbabwe has taken delivery of the Sinopharm and Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines from China as well as Covaxin from India.
