Zimbabwe steps up vaccine rollout as more vaccines arrive

Zimbabwe is accelerating its vaccine procurement and rollout program in hopes of achieving herd immunity before year-end.

On Thursday, Zimbabwe took delivery of another batch of 500 000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine from China, while Serbia donated 30 000 doses of Sputnik vaccines.

The country has so far been mainly using two Chinese vaccines – Sinopharm and Sinovac – to inoculate its population.

The delivery of the latest consignment comes at a time when the country is registering record numbers of vaccines per day as more people rush to get their jabs to protect themselves against the pandemic.

On Tuesday, a record 104,974 vaccine shots were delivered in 24 hours, surpassing the set target of 100,000 daily doses.

A total of 1,348,374 people have so far been fully vaccinated while 2,193,346 have received at least one jab.

While infections are slowly receding, with average daily infection rates around a quarter of those recorded at the height of the third wave in mid-July, Zimbabwe is still battling new daily infections, prompting authorities to extend pandemic restrictive measures.

Since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in March last year, the country has recorded 121,498 positive cases and 4,181 deaths. – Xinhua (Additional reporting by ZimbabweVoice.com)