COVID-19 Vaccine Won't Be Forced On Anyone - Mangwiro

The Health and Child Care deputy minister John Mangwiro on Tuesday said that the government will provide the COVID-19 vaccine free of charge and only those willing will receive the jab.

He also said the country will use structures already in place that have been used previously for other vaccination programmes such as against poliomyelitis. Said Mangwiro:

The vaccine will be free of charge and only those willing will receive it, but we strongly urge people to take the vaccine.

We already have structures that we have previously used for other vaccination programmes like polio, and these are still in place.

We will need a lot of data. We will also collect blood to check for antibodies to COVID-19 in the participants, and also to check if they had the disease at the time of the test.

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We need people to be ready to give the information which will also be critical when getting the second dose, which is administered around 30 days after the first dose.

Meanwhile, Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa told a post-Cabinet media briefing in Harare that the country plans to vaccinate 10 million people.

She said Zimbabwe has already accepted a donation of 200 000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines from China, which are expected in the country by the 15th of February.

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