Schools in southern Africa have been declared vaccination zones. Children in uniforms lined up for the injections.
While many parents support the vaccination drive to stop schools becoming infection centers, others remain skeptical.
It will save us so much trouble if they get vaccinated. It might stop the school closings… online lessons drain us every time they are closed,” Helen Dube, a parent who walked her 12-year-old daughter, to Chitungwiza, which is about 30 km (19 miles) south of Harare.
She said that “plus, if schools can be safe, then we can also be safe at home.” This refers to situations in which schools have been contaminated with viruses.
After two years of closures that were intermittent and sometimes extended due to COVID-19 waves, Zimbabwe is slowly returning to its regular school schedule.
According to Vice President Constantino Chyenga, who is also the country’s health minister, adults are being targeted as well in the vaccination campaign that will last until May mid-May.
Zimababwe was among the first African countries that gave shots of COVID-19 vaccinations. It achieved higher rates than many other African countries.
Around 23% of Zimbabwe’s 15 million residents have had two jabs. This is far below the initial goal of 60% by 2021. The government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa now claims it wants to reach 70% of eligible population by July.
According to official statistics, over 5,400 Zimbabweans have died due to COVID-19. However, experts believe that the death toll could be much higher due to undiagnosed and reported cases.
Although the government claims it has sufficient vaccine doses for booster jabs and other purposes, uptake has been slowing in recent months due to a decrease in fatalities and cases. According to government statistics, just over 8 million doses were used from more than 22 millions of vaccine stock.
Many African countries have had to struggle to obtain adequate vaccines. They are now coordinating their efforts to get shots into the arms.
Mass vaccination campaigns have been launched in Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Congo, and Ethiopia.
Although COVID-19 incidences have decreased across Africa since the peak of an omicron-driven fourth Wave in January 2022 (early January 2022), Africa still has a low vaccination rate. According to the World Health Organization, 201 million or 15.6% of Africa’s 1.3 billion population are fully vaccinated. This compares with 57% globally.
Matshidiso Mbeti, WHO’s regional director Africa, stated that while this is a positive step, it must be accompanied by ninefold more vaccinations to achieve our goal of vaccinating 70% in Africa by June 2022.
According to WHO, WHO will support mass vaccinations in Africa in at least 10 priority countries so that there are 100 million people by April end.
According to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Africa’s 54 countries combined have recorded over 11.3 million cases and more than 250,000 deaths.