{"id":47979,"date":"2021-10-09T20:03:05","date_gmt":"2021-10-09T18:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/?p=47979"},"modified":"2021-10-09T19:32:18","modified_gmt":"2021-10-09T17:32:18","slug":"mounting-scramble-for-covid-vaccines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mounting-scramble-for-covid-vaccines","title":{"rendered":"Mounting Scramble For Covid Vaccines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Zimbabwe<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>IPS<\/b> – MORE than a month ago, she lost her parents, brother, and wife, to the coronavirus. Then her fianc\u00e9 battled COVID-19, but 27-year-old Melinda Gavi said she had not contracted the disease.<\/p>\n

Gavi joined crowds scrambling to get vaccinated at Parirenyatwa hospital in the Zimbabwean capital Harare even though she was previously skeptical about getting vaccinated against the dreaded disease.<\/p>\n

Her parents, brother, and wife were equally skeptical of the Covid-19 vaccines before they were visited by the disease, which eventually claimed their lives.<\/p>\n

In a country of about 15 million people, nearly 5.5 million have had at least had one dose of the vaccine the Reuters Covid-19 tracker, which assuming that each person needs two doses, represents 18.8% of the population.<\/p>\n

The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed in October that Zimbabwe had received 943 200 Covid-19 vaccine doses from the global COVAX Facility in September and October for its ongoing vaccination campaign.<\/p>\n

IPS has been following the rollout of the vaccines in various centres over the past few months, recording people\u2019s personal experiences in the queues.<\/p>\n

Gavi says it has taken her days to get vaccinated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my third day coming here at Parirenyatwa to try and get vaccinated,\u201d Gavi told IPS as she stood in a long and meandering queue at Zimbabwe\u2019s biggest hospital.<\/p>\n

About 200 people gathered at the back of the hospital, some looking tired as they lingered in the queue. Some sat on the pavements and or flower beds, waiting for their turn to get vaccinated in the slow-moving queue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have limited vaccines, and often on a day we are vaccinating just 80 people and everybody else often just goes back home without getting vaccinated,\u201d a nurse who refused to be named as she was unauthorised to speak to the media, told IPS.<\/p>\n

In February this year, Zimbabwe began vaccinating its citizens against coronavirus after receiving a donation of 200 000 doses of China\u2019s Sinopharm vaccine.<\/p>\n

But when the vaccine first arrived, it was met with growing skepticism from social media platforms like WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook, which fuelled the vaccine hesitancy.<\/p>\n

This is no longer the case. Now healthcare workers have to battle hordes of people scrambling for the vaccine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith time, as more and more people got vaccinated without severe safety fears, the public became more assured, and demand for vaccines gradually started to rise,\u201d said epidemiologist Dr Grant Murewanhema in Harare.<\/p>\n

In Bulawayo, on July 8, in the presence of IPS, at the United Bulawayo Hospital, a nurse moved along the queue of people waiting to get vaccinated, counting up to 60 recipients. She told the rest to return the next day.<\/p>\n

She told them she only had enough vaccines for 60 people.<\/p>\n

At number 60 was 47-year-old Jimmy Dzingai, who said he was a truck driver.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, better, at least I am going to get vaccinated,\u201d said Dzingai then as he heaved a sigh of relief, folding his hands across his chest.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, as they were told to leave, others did so but grumbled as they filed outside the hospital, some waving their face masks in anger, shouting at hospital authorities for turning them away.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not the first time I am coming here to try and get vaccinated. I have been here four times, and this is my fifth day starting mid-June \u2013 only to get excuses,\u201d 54-year-old Limukani Dlela, a man who said he lived in Matsheumhlope, a low-density suburb in Bulawayo, told IPS saying that at times the excuse was that there not enough vaccines available and at other times there were a limited number of vaccines.<\/p>\n

Corruption and nepotism have characterised this Southern African country\u2019s bitter war against Covid-19, and many people like Dzingai, the truck driver, have not been spared by the rot.<\/p>\n

As Dzingai stood at the end of the queue, four middle-aged women strode past him and all others, going straight to the head of the queue, and quickly got vaccinated and left.<\/p>\n

According to one of the nurses who manned the queue, \u201cthe four were staff members and couldn\u2019t wait in the queue like everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n

The nurse said this even though the four women, after receiving doses, immediately left the premises just like any other ordinary person.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was talking to my bosses right now, and my truck has been loaded for me to take the delivery to Zambia. I have told my bosses I was getting my vaccine. Instead, you are telling me I\u2019m not going to be vaccinated. You should get water to inject me and give me the vaccine certificate. I will not leave this place without the vaccine,\u201d swore the truck driver.<\/p>\n

But the nurse would have none of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou won\u2019t be vaccinated today. That won\u2019t happen, unfortunately,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Dzingai vowed to stay put at the hospital until he was vaccinated, but because the four women who jumped the queue and got vaccinated before him, it meant he (Dzingai) and three others who had waited at the end of the queue had to leave without the jab.<\/p>\n

With many Zimbabweans like Dzingai now eager to get vaccinated, the government has so far authorised the use of China\u2019s Sinovac and Sinopharm, Russia\u2019s Sputnik V, and India\u2019s Covaxin and the U.S. Johnson and Johnson vaccines.<\/p>\n

It has not, however, been easy for people to get the doses. Now bribery has become the order of the day at Zimbabwe\u2019s hospitals like Sally Mugabe Referral hospital in the capital Harare.<\/p>\n

Lydia Gono (24), from Southertorn middle-income suburb in Harare, said she had to \u2018switch to her purse\u2019, which is local parlance for a bribe, to get quickly vaccinated at Sally Mugabe hospital, the closest medical facility to her home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent close to a week trying to get vaccinated here without success, but today I just rolled a US$10 note in my hand and shook the hand of a nurse who manned the queue, leaving the note in her hand. I was taken to the front and vaccinated without any delay,\u201d Gono told IPS.<\/p>\n

Tired of the corruption and nepotism and the delaying tactics characterising the vaccination process at public healthcare centres, many middle-income earners like 35-year-old Daiton Sununguro have opted for the private medical centres to get their vaccines parting with US$40 for a single dose.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaying is better than having to wait for many hours before getting the vaccine at public healthcare facilities. I will still come back and pay the other US$40 for my second dose,\u201d Sununguro told IPS at a posh private medical facility in Harare\u2019s Mount Pleasant low-density suburb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. IPS – MORE than a month ago, she lost her parents, brother, and wife, to the coronavirus. Then her fianc\u00e9 battled COVID-19, but 27-year-old Melinda Gavi said she had not contracted the disease. Gavi joined crowds scrambling to get vaccinated at Parirenyatwa hospital in the Zimbabwean capital Harare even though she was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":47978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,35,15],"tags":[1493,2189,19],"class_list":["post-47979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-zimbabwe-2","tag-zimbabwe"],"yoast_head":"\nMounting Scramble For Covid Vaccines - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"IPS - MORE than a month ago, she lost her parents, brother, and wife, to the coronavirus. 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