The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) says Zimbabweans should guard against complacency as the country experiences a steady decline in Covid-19 pandemic infections, Business Times can report AHF country director, Ernst Chikwati, said complacency would undermine the gains made so far He said the country was still far from danger Chikwati encouraged people to take up the vaccination so as to be protected from a possible 4th wave of the virus
“We are not out of danger yet, not at all If anything, the danger is there It’s getting worse because we have relaxed We say because the numbers have gone down but the numbers can go up anytime
For instance, look at what happened last year the numbers had gone down around October, November but suddenly they went up in December because people relaxed,” Chikwati told Business Times He added; “ Let’s go for vaccination so that at least we can protect ourselves As long as we don’t have herd immunity we should expect another wave How it will start it’s different
It might be an issue of people coming in.”
Chikwati also said the government should convince Zimbabweans to be vaccinated Zimbabwe is targeting to vaccinate about 60% of the population, which is about 10m people of the total population for herd immunity to be achieved ‘’ In Zimbabwe the vaccines are available and the government is doing its best to make sure that the vaccines are available but the biggest challenge is the issue of hesitation There are certain things that are causing the hesitation, the myths, and the misconceptions, lack of information and lack of trust on the vaccine,” Chikwati said
He said more should be done by the government to “try and see how best we can share information on the vaccine as it is the main cause of the hesitancy and attitude of the people towards vaccines” As of 18 October 2021, Zimbabwe’s cumulative Covid-19 cases stood at 132 405, with 126 487 recoveries and 4 659 deaths The recovery rate remained at 95%, with the number of active cases standing at 1 259, Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa told journalists at a post-Cabinet briefing on Tuesday The number of cases recorded on a daily and weekly basis continued to decline, with all provinces recording a decline in Covid-19-positive cases, indicating that the national response efforts continue to pay off and that the pandemic is being brought under control
In efforts to ramp up the vaccination drive, the Ministry of Health and Child Care has dispatched a team to Chitungwiza City to raise awareness and encourage more people in Chitungwiza to take up the vaccine Vaccine hesitancy, fuelled by myths and false information, is particularly concerning in Zimbabwe The country has so far extended the vaccination program to teenagers between the age of 14 and 17 Source: Business Times
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Source: Businesstimes
