Government is mobilising resources to acquire COVID-19 vaccination according to information revealed to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care.
The country’s President is expected to meet the business sector tomorrow towards raising funds and resources for the vaccine.
Ministry of Health officials told the Parliamentarians that business people are already engaging the government towards the initiative to make sure Zimbabwe receives the much-needed vaccines which can only be imported as Zimbabwe fails to produce its own vaccine for the pandemic.
Director Epidemiology and Disease Control Ministry of Health and Child Welfare Zimbabwe, Dr Portia Manangazira revealed that the minimum cost of the vaccine to be acquired will be US$2.50 per dose. The costs of vaccines vary from $2.50 to $9.
With conspiracy theories raising questions on the safety of the treatment, Health and Child Care Parliamentary Portfolio Committee chairperson, Dr Ruth Labode assured that the COVID-19 vaccines produced are secure.
Commenting on vaccines labelled to be sold only in developing countries, Manangazira said some of such medicines are for subsidies and not about the quality of the product.
The Director Epidemiology also said there is a commit chaired by the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education for scientists to verify the efficacy (the ability to produce a desired or intended result) of the vaccines into Zimbabwe besides the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe, which checks and approves medical products into the country.
Although Manangazira agreed that the vaccines are rigorously checked before distribution, she did not rule out the medication’s side effects that can be managed.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa had revealed government plans to bring in COVID-19 vaccines on 23 January 2021.
As on 20 January 2021, over a thousand people within the Zimbabwean borders had been reported dead on the 31,320 known COVID-19 cases.
The country is currently experiencing what has been deemed the black January with three more cabinet Ministers expected to be buried on the National Heroes Acre after succumbing to COVID-19.