The government has been urged to intensify the rolling out COVID 19 vaccine awareness campaigns to reach marginalized communities which lack adequate and valuable information about the pandemic.
By Taurai Mabhachi Kufa
Speaking at a virtual meeting organized by the by the Media Center on Tuesday ,Marko Shoko a citizen from Chiredzi bemoaned the scarcity of information regarding COVID 19 vaccine and implored the government to ensure awareness strategies are expeditiously put in place.
“There is an evident information gap regarding the COVID 19 vaccine rollout and vaccination amongst the marginalized communities .The government must come up with awareness strategies on COVID-19 vaccine”
Communities need to know the actual vaccines being rolled out and their possible consequences, if any, including when vaccination will happen in their communities,’’ he said.
Responding to Shoko ,Chief Coordinator ,National Response to the Covid 19 Pandemic in the Office of the President and Cabinet Dr Agnes Mahomva admitted there is an information gap about vaccine roll out but urged community leaders to help in the dissemination of information.
“I partly agree with you (Shoko) regarding the gap in terms of information dissemination to the marginalized communities on the COVID 19 vaccine rollout and the actual vaccination. It should however, be noted that information dissemination remains the business of every segment of society including you and I”, she said adding that the government has since started implementing the National Covid-19 Deployment and Vaccination Roll Out(NDVP) Plan focusing on high quality vaccination ,reduction of morbidity and mortality.
Another participant Rashweat Mkundu, asked if Zimbabwe has any other vaccines available other than Sinopharm. In her response Dr Mahomva said that besides the Sinopharm vaccine the government has managed to procure and secure donations of other COVID 19 vaccines such as COVAXIN from India, and the Sputnik vaccine from Russia as well as donations from the World Health Organization(WHO)/GAVI under the COVAX vaccine distribution facility, the African Union facility and the Private Sector Contributions.
She added that the Covid-19 vaccines entering the country are registered by the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MSAZ) under Emergency use authority, in terms of section 75 of Medicines and Substances Control Act and the Ministry of Health and Child Care has set up and is implementing a safety monitoring plan to enable swift detection of any Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEF).
