Vice President Constantino Chiwenga has told Parliament that the first round of COVID-19 vaccination program will take about 10 days to complete.
The vaccination is broken into about three phases which will see frontline workers getting the jabs ahead of everyone.
Frontline workers who are categorised as health workers, border and airport staff, funeral parlour staff and security personnel are in stage 1 of the first phase.
The elderly (60+ years) the chronically ill, prisoners, and refugee camp inmates constitute the second stage in phase 1.
Speaking in the National Assembly, Vice President Chiwenga said the first round will take a bit longer as the personnel will be trying to get used.
“vaccination will be conducted over 10 days in the first round and 5 days in the second round.
“You ask why 10 days in the first round, well our staff is learning and obviously when you are starting something you have not yet learnt the tricks.
“But in the second round, we think there will be more experience and they will do it faster because we want to deal with this thing as fast as we can because the faster we go means our people will be given the necessary anti-bodies that they will be able to fight the virus.
“Their bodies will be able to fight on their own. Supervisors from head office provinces and districts will monitor planning, implementation and outcomes.
Meanwhile, the Vice President has also revealed that the government has since tasked the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) to do studies on Zumbani.
He said the herb has some interesting components worthy of checking out.
“…we have developed interest because we have found something in zumbani which can help and UZ is looking at that.
“We have found a component which is useful in there,” he said.
First-round vaccination to take 10 days
