Masvingo Province has received 22 000 jabs of the COVID-19 vaccines which the country recently procured from Chinese firm Sinopharm.
The consignment was received by Provincial medical director Dr Amadeos Shamu who said everything was in place to start the vaccination of frontline health workers.
He said the vaccines will be stored at the provincial stores at the Ministry of Health and Child Care provincial headquarters before distribution to the province’s seven districts. Dr Shamu said:
Every district gave us a rough estimate of the number of frontline health workers that they have and we are going to use those figures to distribute the 22 000 doses that we received today.
From tomorrow (Saturday), the vaccines will start being shipped to districts and we hope that by Sunday every district will have received their share ahead of the start of vaccination of frontline health workers on Monday.
However the impending vaccination of frontline health workers will be done on a voluntary basis. No one will be forced.
The delivery of the vaccines in Masvingo follows the inaugural vaccination of health caregivers at Wilkins Infectious Diseases Hospital in Harare on Thursday.
Vice President Constantino Chiwenga who is also the minister of Health and Child Care was the first to be vaccinated, a gesture that earned him praises from President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
More: The Herald