Suburban
Vaccination against Covid-19 was ongoing at health facilities in the capital city on Monday with the City of Harare saying the programme is being hampered by understaffing at council clinics.
Suburban Reporter
Residents have been approaching the health centres to get their jabs and protect themselves against the coronavirus.
Last week on Thursday, Zimbabwe took delivery of two million doses of Sinovac from China, the biggest consignment the country has received so far in a major boost for its vaccination programme. Another 1,5 million doses are expected on Thursday this week with a further two million to be delivered at the end of July.
However, the shortage of staff at the council’s health centres has been limiting the number of people being vaccinated daily as the available nurses cannot cope with the influx of residents seeking to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
“Vaccination ongoing at Belvedere Polyclinic. Long queues characterize the vaccination exercise. Council is short staffed. Over 240 nurses have left to join other organizations,” the City of Harare said in a tweet on their official Twitter page on Monday. Of late, council has been losing hundreds of nurses who are leaving in search of better salaries and working conditions.
This has forced council to close some of its clinics while some are operating for a number of days per week. Government has since announced plans to take over council-run clinics and hospitals as part of a strategy to ensure standardized service delivery as envisaged under the National Development Strategy 1.
Residents queuing for vaccination at Belvedere Polyclinic in Harare on Monday.
To date Zimbabwe has received a total of four million doses with the country spending US$40 million on procuring vaccines.
“The arrival of these two million (doses) will see the roll out going into top gear. The Minister of Finance has assured us more vaccines are coming and we would like to encourage Zimbabweans to continue going for vaccination,” said Health and Child Care Deputy Minister, Dr John Mangwiro last week.
Ministry of Health statistics show that on Sunday July 11, 2021 at least 9 361 people got their first dose while 4 916 people go their second dose. So far a total of 895 980 people have received their first dose while 595 417 people have received their second dose.
