 |
| File Picture: Ezra Chadzamira and Victor Matemadanda receiving their first jab in Masvingo |
…as administration of second doses begin
Veeslee Mhepo
Masvingo
Provincial Medical Director (PMD) Dr Amadeus Shamhu has said the province has
recorded a 60 percent Covid-19 vaccination rate of its health work force of 6
000 where 3 600 received the Chinese SinoPharm jab in the first round phase of
the vaccine roll out programme.
Presenting
the province’s Covid-19 situation and vaccine uptake before the Zanu PF
Masvingo Provincial Coordinating Committee (PCC) meeting last Saturday, Dr
Shamhu said the situation has been encouraging but bemoaned misinformation as
the biggest impediment to the success of the programme.
“We received
about 22 000 doses of the SinoPharm vaccine which was enough to vaccinate 11
000 frontline workers in the first phase. I must report that we have about 6
000 frontline health workers in the province and we have so far managed to
vaccinate about 3 600 of them.
“That
makes up for about 60 percent of the population. We started the vaccination in
the province on February 22 and we have started the rolling out of the second
dose.
“As you
know the SinoPharm vaccine is administered in two doses with the first and
second separated with 28 days,” said Dr Shamhu.
He
called on Zanu PF officials to lead from the front to spread accurate
information that the SinoPharm Covid-19 vaccine was safe and dispel
misinformation.
Dr
Shamhu said the Covid-19 cases in the province were dropping and so was the
number of new infections.
“Our
active cases are on the decline and we are recording relatively low positive
cases. We last recorded a Covid-19 related death on February 13, 2021 and I would
say that is a success story for the province.
“We
have a total cumulative infection rate of 2 367 cases and 66 deaths. As at March
19, the province had 19 active cases and they are significantly dropping,” said
Dr Shamhu.
