Zimbabwean VP gets COVID-19 vaccine

Zimbabwe started its COVID-19 vaccination program on Thursday, with Vice President Constantino Chiwenga volunteering for the first jab at a hospital in the capital, Harare.

Amid public mistrust over vaccine safety, Chiwenga, who is also the health minister, said his ministry had “conducted all scientific processes" to confirm the efficacy of the Chinese-developed Sinopharm shot.

Zimbabwe received 200,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine on Monday as a donation from the Chinese government.

Another 600,000 doses purchased by Zimbabwe are expected to arrive early next month, according to government officials.

The southern African nation also expects to secure vaccines from Britain, India and Russia.

Zimbabwe aims to vaccinate 10 million of its people, which represents 60% of the country’s population.

More than 35,000 virus cases have been reported nationally, including 1,418 deaths, as of Wednesday, a significant increase from just over 10,000 cases and 277 deaths at the beginning of December.

Zimbabwe, like many other African countries, initially recorded low numbers of COVID-19 in the first months of the pandemic but recently experienced a spike in cases.

There are fears that a new, more infectious variant of the virus came to the country when scores of thousands of Zimbabweans living in neighbouring South Africa returned home for the holiday season.