TENDAI BHEBE IN BULAWAYO
Hordes of Bulawayo residents are being turned away from getting Covid-19 vaccine doses as they do not have national identification cards, despite a government directive that everyone should get a shot, Business Times can report.
Ward 4 councillor, Silas Chigora, told a full council meeting recently that letters signed by community leaders were some form of identification, but several vaccination centres were rejecting them.
He said communication from the Ministry of Health and Child Care said those who want to be vaccinated but don’t have IDs and birth certificates, or any other form of identification can get a letter from community leaders such as councillors, Members of Parliament, headman and chiefs to confirm their name and where they stay.
“(But) I have discovered that some of our clinics are not accepting those letters.
They were turned away when they couldn’t produce their identity documents. But I had written some letters of identification, and the nurses said we would be wasting our cards.”
He said the letters written by their community leaders should be regarded as identification.
“So I don’t know if the committee has communicated this information to the department and to the people who are vaccinating that those identification papers are regarded as some form of identification. As the Ministry of Health and Child Care said no one should be left behind because they don’t have IDs, passports or birth certificates,” Chigora said.
The chairperson of the Health Committee, councillor Sinikiwe Mutanda said the committee will look into it so that everyone gets their vaccine.
“This was a directive from the Ministry of Health and Child Care that everyone should get their jab as this is their right.
“In my ward, there are some people I have helped, I have written letters for them and they got assistance. We will look at that as a committee so that we can help everyone get their vaccine,” she said.
Zimbabwe needs to vaccinate 60% of the population, which is about 10m people to reach herd immunity.
Zimbabwe has recorded a cumulative of 127 938 Covid-19 cases as at September 20, 2021, with 120 946 recoveries and 4 567 deaths, according to the Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Monica Mutsvangwa, who spoke at a post Cabinet briefing on Tuesday.
She said the recovery rate stood at 95%, with 99% of cases being attributable to local transmission.
Active cases stood at 2 425.
This week, Mutsvangwa said the number of cases recorded went up to 1 669.
The education sector contributed significantly to this increase.
She said the government resolved to enhance surveillance and contact tracing at schools and in the surrounding communities and increase on-site Covid-19 testing of all suspected cases, contacts and surrounding communities.
Cabinet also resolved to isolate and manage all Covid-19-positive cases.
There would be restriction of movement into and out of the affected schools until the outbreaks have been controlled, enhancement of public health and social protocols, including social distancing, hand washing, sanitisation and wearing of face masks and teachers would be empowered to detect and report suspected cases.
Awareness campaigns would be enhanced in schools and surrounding communities and vaccination of all eligible populations in schools and surrounding communities.
On government response to Covid-19, Mutsvangwa said a total of 2 949 025 people had received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 2 065 395 their second dose across the country as of September 19, 2021.
This translates to national coverage of 34.7% for the first dose and 24.3% for the second dose.
Of special note, Mutsvangwa said the City of Bulawayo, had 52.6% for the first dose and 40.3% for the second edging towards herd immunity, along with Matabeleland North where Victoria Falls has already surpassed its herd immunity.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article do not represent those of the European Union or the International Media Support
