Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. The Government has used about US$140 million so far in buying vaccines for COVID-19, Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube told Parliament recently.
Giving an update on the current economic situation in the country in the National Assembly, Ncube said:
A few words on COVID-19, Zimbabwe together with the global community has been under attack from the COVID-19 pandemic since 20th March 2020 which posed several challenges retarding the full attainment of the desired economic outcomes.
To mitigate the impact of the disease, the government has spent over US$140 million on the procurement of 22.4 million vaccine doses, and this is enough to vaccinate the bulk of our population or at least 60% of the population which is herd immunity.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, we have an additional 10 million doses that have been donated to Zimbabwe by the government of China.
We have not taken delivery because we still need to exhaust what we have. So, we have enough vaccines to vaccinate everyone, and everyone can also receive a booster shot.
I hope that members of the august House are beginning to receive their booster shots, and I encourage them to do so if they have not. I certainly have.
Ncube also revealed that development partners have contributed US$150.5 million towards the fight against COVID-19. Said Ncube:
Government also appreciates the continued support coming from development partners to complement efforts in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.
To date, the Government has received US$150.5 million from development partners, which has been spent on COVID-19-related expenditures.
Zimbabwe also received US$961 million in the form of SDR allocation, as you know; I presented how this money has been spent in terms of socio-economic, infrastructure, and productive sectors as well as supporting our contingency fund for the future, and making sure that we bolster our foreign reserves.
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