HARARE, (The Southern African Times) – Zimbabwe continues to score major milestones in its COVID-19 vaccination program, with reports that government workers are now fully vaccinated.
In September, the government made it mandatory for all its workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as part of wider measures to ramp up vaccination and ensure the country achieves herd immunity by year-end.
Government nudged the workers by indicating that those who do not get vaccinated will not receive their salaries.
On Sunday, Public Service, Labor and Social Welfare Minister Paul Mavima confirmed that all civil servants in the country had been inoculated, saying that the vaccine uptake within the public service was indication of the efficacy of government’s “no work, no pay” policy.
He said the government workplace is now a safer place for the people, and this should help to boost productivity.
Zimbabwe is targeting to inoculate 10 million people out of a population of about 14 million, and to date, 3,468,344 people have received their first jabs and 2,696,516 have got their second jabs.
The second largest city of Bulawayo is leading in terms of vaccination rates with 47.7 percent as of Nov. 2, followed by Matabeleland North Province with 42.4 percent.
The capital Harare had a vaccination rate of 29.7 percent.
With Zimbabwe being one of the leading countries in Africa as far as vaccinations are concerned, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube recently revealed that the country had since acquired about 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, enough for almost 10 million people targeted for vaccination by year-end.
Impetus has been added to the vaccination program after government recently directed that children aged 16 and 17 should be vaccinated with China’s Sinovac vaccine.
Authorities have already set in motion plans to set up vaccination centers in schools to quicken the pace of vaccination.
By Sunday, Zimbabwe had recorded 133,438 COVID-19 cases including 128,287 recoveries and 4,697 deaths.
Ncube last week said the country hoped to flatten the curve as the vaccination program is being rolled out.
“The government also appreciates the role industry played in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic through workplace safety, supporting the vaccination drive, supporting the government in cash and kind. Together we managed to contain the severity of the pandemic on our economy,” Ncube said.
Ncube said the economy is expected to rebound and grow by 7.8 percent in 2021, after two years of recession, buoyed by a successful 2020-21 agricultural season and the vaccination program.
