HARARE, (The Southern African Times) – Zimbabwe has raised 100 million U.S. dollars for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccine doses to inoculate at least 60 percent of the country’s population.
Finance and Economic Development Permanent Secretary George Guvamatanga told state-run The Sunday Mail newspaper that Treasury was now awaiting authorization of the vaccines by local regulators before placing an order.
“The government has set aside 100 million U.S. dollars for the vaccines to procure around 20 million vaccine doses to immunize 60 percent of the population, which will help us attain herd immunity. So we are now waiting for the scientists to tell us which vaccine to buy and where to procure it from,” said Guvamatanga.
He said the country has enough funds to buy the vaccines, adding that only vaccines approved by the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be distributed under the initiative, the newspaper reported Sunday.
The vaccines will be secured through an African Union-led initiative that has so far procured over 270 million vaccines for the African continent.
Last week, the Zimbabwean government roped in the private sector to help pool resources for vaccine procurement.
Zimbabwe has seen a spike in COVID-19 infections and fatalities since the beginning of the year. The country has reported 33,273 COVID-19 cases to date, including 1,193 deaths.
