By Karen Nyeraurombo
Zimbabwe AIDS Network national coordinator Godfrey Mudariki says the government must fast track procurement of vaccines if it hopes to avoid the effects of impending COVID-19 waves.
To be ahead of the waves, the country must attain herd immunity.
According to the Ministry of Health and Child Care, at least between 60 and 70 percent of the population must be vaccinated to reach herd immunity.
However, Zimbabwe is said to be behind schedule due to slow procurement and availability of vaccines.
In past weeks, Zimbabweans across the country were being turned away from vaccination centres due to the unavailability of the jabs.
Speaking in an interview on OpenParly In-depth, Mudariki said the herd immunity target is far from sight unless measures are put in place to fast track the jabs.
“The target is very high; 70 per cent is a long way to go. We ought to push our government, encourage it to fast track the procurement and find ways of partnerships fast.
“…From one wave we seem to have figured out how to manage it but what would have possibly worked in the first wave would not work now because of the changes that would have happened within the virus itself.
“I wouldn’t be surprised with us going to the 5th wave based on where the science is coming from.
“The British scientists are already calling for a delayed easing of restrictions based on fears that we might actually brew more variants that might be clinically unmanageable.
“I think it’s important for people to understand that Covid-19 vaccination will not reduce the risk of acquisition of the virus. So communities still need to remain fragile in terms of Covid-19 prevention and risk mitigation.
“The vaccine basically boosts the ability of your body to respond and produce antibodies against Covid-19. So, when the virus gets into your body, we are trying to quickly boost you to respond but not necessarily help you to not catch the disease.
“Covid-19 is no longer in urban areas like we have seen in the past, it’s affecting even rural areas.
“It’s quite clear from what we see in the region, from everywhere else in the globe whereby they acknowledge the risk that yes there are variants with Covid-19, but we hope that our government, our leadership would also prioritize issues that bring us back to the norm,” he said.
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