Deputy Minister of Health and Child Care Dr John Mangwiro says unvaccinated people are dominating the present run of Covid-19 positive cases, with most infected people showing symptoms and most clusters of infection being initiated by someone who became infected outside Zimbabwe.
Despite the improved low number of infected people who received the jab, Dr Mangwiro said vaccinated people need to keep wearing face masks, sanitizing and observing social distancing to curb the spread of the virus.
Dr John Mangwiro reiterated that Zimbabwe was recording positive results in areas where there was higher uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine.
“Mass vaccination in border towns had been critical with low cases in those areas. Fortunately, our border towns like Victoria Falls where we had our first mass vaccination and the uptake was good. I was talking to Dr Mamvura, the District Medical Officer for Victoria Falls, and his cases are quite low, about six. Also Plumtree did a massive campaign to vaccinate, and so figures are very low,” he said.
Zimbabwe has been vaccinating its citizens using the highly rated Chinese-made Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines, which have both been granted emergency use authorization by the World Health Organization (WHO) and a combined 1,7 million doses of the two vaccines has formed the mainstay of the Zimbabwean vaccination effort.
In addition, India has donated 37 000 doses of Covaxin while 25 000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine were procured by a mining company.
Research conducted by the Gamaleya National Research Centre of Epidemiology and Microbiology and the Russian Direct Investment Fund revealed that the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine showed a 97,6 percent efficacy.
Meanwhile, Dr Mangwiro added that more vaccines were expected to arrive next week whilst urging all Zimbabweans to get vaccinated.
“More vaccines are expected in the country this coming week and we encourage people to get vaccinated and keep up the pressure and momentum on vaccination,” he added.
He encouraged those that have already been vaccinated to continue adhering to the prescribed protocols such as wearing face masks, staying indoors unless it becomes extremely necessary to go out, washing hands, sanitization and maintaining social distance, to minimise chances of them getting infected.
Zimbabwe introduced a new range of restrictions recently and the government encouraged people to adhere to the measures so as to contain the spread of the virus.