“ZIMBABWE has been ranked the 7th best African country in managing COVID-19 vaccination, beating its neighbour South Africa which came a distant 31 on the rankings ladder,” reported News Day.
“According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) FT vaccine tracker seen by NewsDay yesterday, Zimbabwe emerged one of the best African countries doing well in the management of COVID-19 vaccination in rankings where Seychelles, also a SADC country, claimed the top post.”
Zimbabwe has consistently had one of the lowest corona virus cases and deaths per capita anywhere in the world. The explanation has been obvious; the country has not been testing for the virus even when it should do so.
At the peak of the last corona virus wave late last year, SA was carrying out over 44 000 tests per day. Zimbabwe, with ¼ of SA’s population, should have been doing over 11 000 tests per day; was doing 1 500 tests per day or 10%.
Zimbabwe has received 400 000 and 200 000 of Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccine doses donated by China and 35 000 doses donated by India. The country has since bought one million Sinovac vaccines from China and Minister of Finance, Professor Mthuli Ncube, has said the country will be buying one million doses very month.
There have been no reports of the country running out of vaccines since mid February 2021 when the country received the 200 000 Sinopharm vaccine. And according to the Minister of Health’s 3 May corona virus report, 427 753 people have received their first jab and 99 765 have receive their first and second jab.
So, it has taken two and half months to administer just over 600 000 vaccines and vaccinating just over half a million. We need to vaccinate 10 million to reach herd immunity and this will take 50 months or just over 4 years. And throughout that period we will be a sitting duck; hoping against hope that the nation is spared the serious corona virus outbreak as happening in India and Brazil!
US President, Joe Biden, set himself the target to vaccinating 100 million Americans in his first 100 days in office. He vaccinated 150 million or 50% of the country’s adult population and is set to reach the 70% herd immunity by 4 July 2021. Zimbabwe has vaccinated half a million or 5% in the last 100 days and for that we receive praise and accolades! For what, one might ask!
"It's very true that Zimbabwe is ranked as such, actually it's one of the best in Africa and SADC,” explained Johannes Marisa, acting President of Zimbabwe Medical and Dental Private Practitioners Association.
“It's a true reflection of what's happening in terms of the vaccination programme. Why? If you notice, we are the fast-mover. We actually moved fast on vaccination. Remember, we sent a whole plane to China to collect the first 200 000 vaccine vials yet no other country had undertaken that step."
The corona virus pandemic is the most serious existential threat of our time and since the only sure defence is to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible. We should be moving heaven and earth to vaccinate our people a.s.a.p. Whilst other nations have vaccinated 50% plus of their people in the last three months, we have only managed to vaccinate a paltry 5% in the same time and are over the moon about that.
One can understand if the country has only managed to vaccinate 5% of the target population in three months because it ran out of vaccines. The Minister of Finance has promised to procure one million vaccine a month and it is simply not good enough to hear the country can only administer 600 000 vaccines in three months. If such a pathetic performance deserves the ranking of 7 best performer then, compared to the rest of the world, the bar must been brought down very, very low indeed.
Indeed, one is given to ask the busy bodies at WHO FT vaccine tracker, who produced this ranking, whether this is a genuine race or just one of those UN rat race to the bottom? Race has no starting point, finishing point and no time limit and everyone will be declared the winner guaranteed!
As long as the threat of a new corona virus remains the nation will not afford to drop its guard, no expense can be spared on the test, trace, track and isolate routine plus all the other measures to contain the virus. Now that there are vaccines, no stone should be left unturned to secure the vaccines and vaccinate the people as quickly as possible.
ReplyDeleteThere is no excuse for the nation taking three months to vaccinate 500 000, that is just unacceptable. If the Minister of Finance said he can procure one million vaccine doses a month then the vaccinating team must administer one million vaccines a month without failure. At the current rate of 500 000 vaccinated per 3 months, it will take three years plus to reach herd immunity; that is totally unacceptable.
The pressure should be on the Minister of Finance to buy more vaccines because even at one million per month it will take two years or so to reach the 10 million herd immunity.
Of all people WHO knows that Zimbabwe's corona virus cases and death figures are total fiction. Everyone knows that Zimbabwe has not been testing as rigorously as SA or other countries.
The WHO ranking is probably based on how quickly Zimbabwe got its first one million vaccine doses, as the "clever" Doctor said. Many country may have been slow in getting the vaccines but will more than make up for it in accelerating their vaccination campaign.
UN organisations like WHO usually go out in a limb just to find something positive regardless how trivial the point. Sadly, for countries like Zimbabwe because the relevant authority picks that up and run with it! There really is no excuse why Zimbabwe has only vaccinated 5% of the target population now a good six months since the first vaccines were on the market.
Zimbabwe is losing a staggering US$1.2 billion per year in smuggled gold alone. Stamp out the corruption and the country will have the money to buy the vaccines and not have to rely on donations. Zimbabwe has the money to buy enough vaccines and reach herd immunity by the end of this year!
@ Juma
ReplyDelete"Always negative!"
Well there is a lot of negative things happening in Zimbabwe right now and therefore one should not be surprise that is all some of us who are truly concerned about the suffering of ordinary people talk of nothing else but the wrong those in power are doing. If you are not concerned about the suffering masses then it must because you are one of the ruling elite who are benefiting and don't care about others. Or you are just one of those brainwashed people who thinks that they are doing the nation a big favour by turning a blind eye to the wrong our leaders do.
THE World Health Organisation (WHO) has granted emergency approval for the Covid vaccine made by Chinese company Sinopharm.
ReplyDeleteIt is the first vaccine developed by a non-Western country to get WHO backing.
With little data released internationally early on, the effectiveness of the various Chinese vaccines has long been uncertain.
But the WHO on Friday said it had validated the “safety, efficacy and quality” of the Sinopharm jab.
The WHO said the addition of the vaccine had “the potential to rapidly accelerate Covid-19 vaccine access for countries seeking to protect health workers and populations at risk”.
It is recommending that the vaccine be administered in two doses to those aged 18 and over.
A decision is expected within days on another Chinese vaccine developed by Sinovac, while Russia’s Sputnik vaccine is under assessment.
Why does WHO backing matter?
The green light from the global health body is a guideline for national regulators that a vaccine is safe and effective.
The vaccine’s developer, Beijing Biological Products Institute, has not released any detailed data about its efficacy, but has said the jab is 79.34% effective in preventing people from developing the disease, based on interim data, according to Reuters news agency.
THE World Health Organisation (WHO) has granted emergency approval for the Covid vaccine made by Chinese company Sinopharm.
It is the first vaccine developed by a non-Western country to get WHO backing.
With little data released internationally early on, the effectiveness of the various Chinese vaccines has long been uncertain.
But the WHO on Friday said it had validated the “safety, efficacy and quality” of the Sinopharm jab.
The WHO said the addition of the vaccine had “the potential to rapidly accelerate Covid-19 vaccine access for countries seeking to protect health workers and populations at risk”.
It is recommending that the vaccine be administered in two doses to those aged 18 and over.
A decision is expected within days on another Chinese vaccine developed by Sinovac, while Russia’s Sputnik vaccine is under assessment.
Why does WHO backing matter?
The green light from the global health body is a guideline for national regulators that a vaccine is safe and effective.
The vaccine’s developer, Beijing Biological Products Institute, has not released any detailed data about its efficacy, but has said the jab is 79.34% effective in preventing people from developing the disease, based on interim data, according to Reuters news agency.
The UK’s AstraZeneca vaccine is yet another type of vaccine where a version of a common cold virus from chimpanzees is modified to contain genetic material shared by the coronavirus. Once injected, it teaches the immune system how to fight the real virus.
BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna have an efficacy rate of around 90% or higher, while the AstraZeneca jab is thought to be around 76%.
In April, China’s top disease control official said the efficacy of the country’s Covid vaccines was low, although he later insisted his comments had been misinterpreted
This is good news!
DESPITE many African countries struggling to obtain enough Covid-19 vaccines, some have thousands of expired doses they have been unable to use.
ReplyDeleteWhich countries have unused vaccines?
Malawi has been left with 16,400 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, while South Sudan has 59,000 – all now past their expiry date, 13 April.
Both countries say they have decided to destroy these consignments, donated via the African Union, despite the World Health Organization (WHO) asking for them to be kept while it investigates whether the expiry date can be safely extended.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine can be stored safely in normal refrigerated conditions for up to six months after production.
And the African Union is now redistributing batches originally delivered to South Africa in February, with a 13 April expiry date.
The South African government decided not to use them, concerned the vaccine offered insufficient protection from the variant prevalent in the country.
But some, such as South Sudan, say they were not made aware of the expiry date. Nigeria, meanwhile, said it would be unable to use all the doses in time.
So some were reassigned to neighbouring Togo and Ghana. And some were even sent to Jamaica.
The WHO says only Togo and The Gambia have confirmed they used all these doses by the expiry date.
And information about what has happened to the rest is currently unavailable
This is a common story in Africa and it is heart breaking to hear it every time! The very fact that this sort of thing happens and the people themselves say and do nothing about it has only encouraged those responsible to do this again and again.
There is a huge price for all of us, Africans, to pay in that we are the ones discouraging the donors and those would want to help Africa. People will help those who help themselves!
"We recorded five new cases all locals and no death in the last 24 hours. In terms of vaccination update, 16 792 received their 1st dose today bringing cumulative for 1st dose to 526 066 while 9 613 received their 2nd dose bringing cumulative for 2nd dose to 158 177," said the Ministry.
ReplyDelete"As of 08 May 2021, 3PM there were 12 hospitalised cases only one person is in intensive care unit. Since the outbreak of Covid-19, Zimbabwe has recorded 38 419 cases 36 063 recoveries and 1 576 deaths."
Zimbabwe, like most of Africa, has been spared the full blown corona virus outbreaks that have happened in other countries such as USA, Brazil and India. The first vaccine was available in December 2020 and when other nations are due to reach their herd immunity in the next month or so it is shocking that Zimbabwe has so far only managed to vaccinate just over half a million.
It took six months to vaccinate 5% of the 10 million to reach herd immunity! How long is it going to take us to vaccinate the remaining 95%??? Are we not testing providence by dragging our feet when we should be going all out to vaccinate our people.
A KWEKWE man who died from Covid-19 after contact with a niece who had just returned from India where thousands have succumbed to a deadly variant has brought panic among health authorities in the city.
ReplyDeleteRobson Kadenhe (76) of Chicago Plots along Gokwe Road who was a known hypertension patient on treatment died on Wednesday after testing positive to Covid-19.
Zimbabwe has so far recorded 38 491 Covid-19 cases and 1 582 deaths while some 559 875 people have been vaccinated against Covid-19 as of Thursday
The first vaccine was approved in December 2020 and 6 months later Zimbabwe has only managed to vaccinate a misery 559 875!
June and July are the winter months, the flue months, and corona virus may well spread and hit the nation hard. With only 560 000 vaccinated out of a target 10 million herd immunity we are a sitting duck! Why Zimbabwe has only managed to vaccinate so few is a reflection of the blundering incompetence of this Zanu PF regime and the nation is going to pay dearly for it – in cash and human suffering and deaths.
The country, like most other countries in Africa, has so far been spared the corona virus infection rates that we have seen in other countries like Brazil and India. We must step up on our vaccine roll-out. Why is it that Zimbabwe has only managed to vaccinate just over 500 000 six months after the first vaccine was approved in December 2020!! We should not be tempting providence!
ReplyDeleteVP Chiwenga is just a buffoon and the misery number of vaccinated Zimbabweans bespeaks of his blundering incompetence. Are we going to wait until Zimbabweans are dying in their hundreds, thousands, etc. before we finally admit Chiwenga is a buffoon!!!
The World Health Organisation issued a grim warning on Friday that the second year of Covid-19 was set to be "far more deadly", as Japan extended a state of emergency amid growing calls for the Olympics to be scrapped.
ReplyDelete"We're on track for the second year of this pandemic to be far more deadly than the first," said WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
The country, like most other countries in Africa, has so far been spared the corona virus infection rates that we have seen in other countries like Brazil and India. We must step up on our vaccine roll-out. Why is it that Zimbabwe has only managed to vaccinate just over 500 000 six months after the first vaccine was approved in December 2020!! We should not be tempting providence!
VP Chiwenga is just a buffoon and the misery number of vaccinated Zimbabweans bespeaks of his blundering incompetence. Are we going to wait until Zimbabweans are dying in their hundreds, thousands, etc. before we finally admit Chiwenga is a buffoon!!!
MORE than 140 healthcare workers have resigned from Bulawayo's central hospitals, a development which has compromised service delivery. Most of these healthcare workers are said to be trekking to the UK which recently embarked on massive recruitment in the face of Covid-19.
ReplyDeleteThe resignations come at a time when Government has shown commitment to improve the welfare of its workers through improved salaries and a slew of non-cash incentives.
A total of 52 registered general nurses and two doctors resigned at the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) this year. The public institution has 659 nurses and 171 doctors to cater for all the hospitals within UBH.
Mpilo Central Hospital lost 77 nurses and seven doctors, a development which authorities say has crippled operations. The 1 000-bed central hospital has 535 nurses and 196 doctors
Zimbabwe’s health care, as with education and many other basic services, collapsed a long time ago and has just been ticking over.
And only last week Mnangagwa was insisting the country was on course to be an upper middle income nation by 2030, vision 2030. Here is a leader who continue to pretend everything is fine and will not deal with the many teething problem and thus dragging the nation deeper and deeper into the abyss. The deeper we sink the harder and longer it will be to recover, it is easier to destroy and harder to build; assuming we have not already gone beyond the point of no return!
Spokesperson in the ministry, Donald Mujiri was not reachable on his cellphone.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there could be moves by government to institute another severe lockdown should the late Kadenhe and his wife are found to have contracted the virus in India.
A total of nine of Kadenhe's contacts were traced and antigen-tested, with six of them testing positive, according to a preliminary report
Robson Kadenhe of Chicago Plots, Old Gokwe Road, died on May 12 after falling ill on May 08, and having returned from India on April 29.
The sheer incompetence with which this incident is being handled reminds one of the way the regime handled Zororo Makamba, Zimbabwe’s recorded corona virus death. Zororo was allowed to mix with the public even after immigration officials had said he should go into isolation because some Zanu PF idiot overruled the official.
The world has known about the India corona virus variant for the last three months and it beggars belief that government had failed to put into place a system to at least test all those arriving into the country from India. Mr Kadenhe and his party arrived from India on 29 April and still there is no action on the ground to trace, track, test and isolate all those who came into contact with him and his party.
Why has Zimbabwe has only vaccinated 5% or so of the 10 million to achieve herd immunity when other nations have vaccinated 70% plus? The super-slow vaccination roll out only means the nation is at great risk of a corona virus outbreak.
Zimbabwe, like the rest of Africa, has not had a serious corona virus outbreak, thank God! Still, we should never tempt providence by continuing to be so reckless and foolish!
ZIMBABWEANS should not panic over the new India Covid-19 variant which has been detected in the country as long as they adhere to recommended World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines implemented by the Government to prevent the spread of the deadly pandemic.
ReplyDeleteThese include the thorough washing of hands with soap and running water, correct wearing of masks and practicing social distancing, which the Government imposed last year when the first case of Covid-19 was recorded.
According to WHO, a variant can be labelled as of concern if it has been shown to be more contagious and more deadly.
Of course, Zimbabweans have every good reason to panic. Government should have measures in place to stop the Indian variant getting into the country in the first place by making sure all new arrivals from the Indian subcontinent go into isolation and by stepping up its test, trace, track and isolate procedures. It is clear none of these are in place. None!
Zimbabwe, like many other countries in Africa have been spare the worst of the corona virus, so far. Of course, it is very foolish indeed to test providence and yet that is exactly what this Zanu PF regime has been doing with its blundering incompetence!
@ Mbofana
ReplyDelete“Why running around now - pretending to be a responsible government - when the country, and most specifically our city of Kwekwe, has already become an India variant COVID-19 hotspot, with a life having needlessly been lost, everyone now living on edge, and business activities further crippled, in the midst of an already catastrophic economic atmosphere - largely caused by the same government's incompetence, not only in managing the country, but also the COVID-19 (SARS-Cov-2) pandemic, every since its outbreak last year.
Honestly, for how long have we been hearing about the Indian variant's murderous devastation in the second most populace country in the world - since its prevalence several weeks ago, with thousands of people dying on a daily basis...yesterday recording 4,529 deaths, bringing the total to 291,331?
Did anyone on this planet not know that this fatal reign was due to a "new" variant (B.1.617) predominantly found in India, and was reportedly even more lethal, and easily spread, than the dreaded South African variant (B.1.361, which has the N501Y mutation)?
Yet, what did our "able", "listening", and "caring" leaders do - in spite of being aware of these facts for the past several weeks?
A big fat NOTHING!”
I do share your frustration and anger at the sheer blundering incompetence and self-righteous arrogance of this Zanu PF regime. Zimbabwe have been spared the worst of this corona virus, forget the under reported official cases and deaths but that is no excuse for tempting providence.
It beggars belief why Zimbabwe has only vaccinated 5% of the 10 million required to reach herd immunity when many nations have vaccinated 70% plus of their target figures. And, if failing to roll out the vaccination programs was not bad enough, we learn the buffoons have allowed the Indian variant to spread in the country! What a nightmare!
In his speech, Chiwenga said the Chitepo medical facility was below par and that it did not match the provincial referral hospital status.
ReplyDelete"The hospital lacks some facilities that would make it a (proper) provincial hospital hence it's a provincial hospital in name only," said Chiwenga.
He also emphasised the need to equip these health facilities with modern equipment in order to deliver high quality health services.
Chiwenga also noted that the hospital served close to two million people and that additional infrastructure was needed as a matter of urgency.
"Manicaland province has a total population of 1.7 million people and they get their health care from the provincial hospital hence there is need to improve the standards of the health facilities at the hospital," said Chiwenga
This said with the stone faced detachment belaying one who has no clue what he is talking about, one who does not understand the person responsible for the sorry state of our hospitals is none other than himself.
"Things will never be the same again. We are restructuring and reforming our health delivery system. We want to rebuild the structures from village to referral level. Things will never be the same again, but we must work together," said VP Chiwenga when he took over as Minister of Health in August last year.
"We have already identified the problems and we do not want a repeat of what was happening before.”
Now it is nearly a year since he took over and the situation on the ground has remained the same, our health care service has all but totally collapsed.
"The hospital lacks some facilities that would make it a (proper) provincial hospital hence it's a provincial hospital in name only!” What a buffoon!