Deputy Minister of Health John Mangwiro has told Parliament that Zimbabwe has no plans to do tests on the Chinese vaccine (Sinopharm) that arrived a few days ago.
Answering questions from legislators, the Deputy Minister said tests were already done by the manufacturer.
“This thing (Sinopharm) when it comes here its already tested and proved to be safe. Our medicine control people have already looked at the vaccine and its results so there is no new testing of the vaccine.
“We are not here to experiment on the virus afresh, this is not our vaccine its something that has already been tested elsewhere.
“It has proved that its working and it has been used by others and proved to be effected so there is not testing in Zimbabwe that is going on with this Sinopharm.
“We are not doing any trial with the vaccine. Trials were done by the manufacturer in different areas in their country. What we are doing is to administer it to reach our goals,” he said.
The clarification by the government comes at a time when there is an outcry in Zimbabwe over the safety of Sinopharm.
Sinopharm is manufactured in China and is among a cocktail of vaccines that the government is going to acquire.
According to Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, the country will also buy about 600 000 doses of the vaccine.
Other vaccines are expected to come from India and Russia.
About 10 million people are targeted for the immunisation program that will see health workers getting the jabs first.
COVID-19 was first reported in Zimbabwe in March of 2020 and has claimed many lives.
As a measure of trying to curb the spread of the virus, the country instituted various levels of lockdowns. Get more Covid-19 Stats from CovidZW.info #OpenCovidContracts #WhereAreOurVaccinesZW
We won’t test the Chinese vaccine: Govt
