World News | Zimbabwe Renews COVID Vaccination Drive, Targets Schoolkids

Harare (Zimbabwe), Mar 24 (AP) Zimbabwe has launched a new COVID-19 vaccination campaign that includes jabbing children aged 12 and above to rescue a drive faltering due to vaccine hesitancy and complacency.

This week schools in the southern African country have become vaccination zones with children in school uniforms lining up to get the injections.

Also Read | Russia Blocks Access to Google News Service Amid Ukraine-Russia War.

Many parents said they supported the vaccination drive to prevent schools from becoming centres of infection, although others remained sceptical.

“Let them get vaccinated, it will save us a lot of trouble. Maybe it will stop the constant closures of schools … the online lessons drain us each time the schools are closed,” said Helen Dube, a parent walking her 12-year-old daughter to a school in the crowded Chitungwiza town, about 30 kilometres southeast of capital Harare.

Also Read | Sri Lankan Navy Arrests 16 Indian Fishermen From Tamil Nadu, Seizes 2 Fishing Boats for Violating IMBL.

“Plus, if schools are safe then we are also safe at home,” she said, referring to instances when schools have become centres of virus infection.

Zimbabwe is gradually returning to its normal school calendar after two years of intermittent and sometimes prolonged closures due to waves of COVID-19 cases.

Adults are also being targeted in the vaccination campaign which will run until mid-May, according to Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, who is also the country's health minister.

Zimababwe was one of the first African countries to give shots of COVID-19 vaccines, achieving higher rates than much of the continent.

About 23 per cent of Zimbabwe's 15 million people have received two jabs, mostly of the Chinese Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines, far short of the government's initial target of 60 per cent by the end of 2021.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government now says it is trying to reach a goal of 70 per cent of the eligible population by the end of July.

Just over 5,400 people in Zimbabwe have died from COVID-19, according to official figures, although the toll is likely much higher because of undiagnosed or under-reported cases, according to health experts.

The government says it has enough vaccine doses, including for booster jabs, but uptake has slowed in recent months as the number of cases and fatalities have slowed.

Just over eight million doses have been used out of more than 22 million in stock, according to government figures.

After experiencing difficulties in getting adequate supplies of vaccines, many African countries are now making concerted efforts to get shots into arms.

Kenya, Congo, Ethiopia and Nigeria have also launched mass vaccination campaigns.

While COVID-19 cases have declined across the continent since the peak of the omicron-driven fourth wave in early January this year, Africa's vaccination coverage remains far behind the rest of the world.

About 201 million people or 15.6 per cent of Africa's population of 1.3 billion are fully vaccinated compared with the global average of 57 per cent, according to the World Health Organisation.

“While this progress is welcome, the pace of vaccination across the continent needs to increase nine-fold if we are to reach our target of vaccinating 70 per cent of the population by June this year,” Matshidiso Moeti, WHO's regional director for Africa, said this month.

WHO plans to support mass vaccinations in Africa “in at least 10 priority countries to reach 100 million by the end of April”, according to a WHO statement.

Together Africa's 54 countries have recorded more than 11.3 million cases, including more than 250,000 deaths, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)