Zimbabwe Vice President Constantino Chiwenga became the first person to take the Sinopharm vaccine as the government rolled out a campaign to protect the population against the deadly COVID-19 pandemic on Thursday.
Chiwenga, who doubles as health minister, took the jab at Harare’s Wilkins Infectious Diseases Hospital at the start of the vaccination campaign that would see more than 60 percent of Zimbabwe’s population vaccinated during the next few months.
The country this week received 200,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine donated from China and is expecting several more from the Asian giant and other countries in the next few weeks.
The first phase of the vaccination programme involves the inoculation of about 50,000 health workers and thousands of other high-risk frontline staff such as security personnel and those at ports of entry.
The phase also targets the elderly and vulnerable groups, according to Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa.
These would be followed by college and university lecturers and school teachers under phase two of the vaccination programme, while the rest of the population would be catered for under the final phase.
The target is to vaccinate 22 percent of the population under the first phase, followed by 18.4 percent under phase two, and 18.4 percent under the final phase, “thereby yielding a vaccinated population of nearly 60 percent of the population,” Mutsvangwa announced earlier in the week.
JN/APA