News / Local
City adopts door-to-door Covid-19 vaccination
23 Jan 2022 at 08:03hrs | Views
BULAWAYO has started a door-to-door Covid-19 vaccination programme, as the country ramps up its fight against the pandemic.
The latest development comes as Government has also indicated that the fourth wave was coming to end, but complacency might trigger a fifth wave. In Bulawayo, officials said mobile teams have been going round the city's suburbs in the door to door blitz, while other teams are being placed at strategic areas to expedite the exercise.
The city is among the leading places in vaccination figures with latest official figures showing that at least 52 percent of eligible people in the city have received the recommended two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. However, those already vaccinated have been encouraged to take a booster dose.
Bulawayo Provincial Medical Director, Dr Maphios Siamuchembu told Sunday News that the door-to-door drive was one of the strategies they were embarking on to ensure that they increase the number of people vaccinated and aid the country's response against the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The door-to-door campaign is one of our strategies which we have come up with that will see us get closer to the herd immunity. We have realised that people are no longer availing themselves to be vaccinated while vaccine doses are in abundance, actually we are even running out of storage because of the vaccines we have in the country.
Our aim for now is that we vaccinate most of those in the eligible population, as a city 52 percent of our eligible population have received all their doses, remember that for us to reach herd immunity we need at least 60 percent of the entire population to have vaccinated, inclusive of the children who are currently not eligible," said Dr Siamuchembu.
The Government has also stressed the need for communities to take up vaccination which has proved to be preventing serious illness and hospitalisation of people infected with Covid-19 in the country and beyond. So far 4 234 364 people have received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and 3 262 246 people have got their second dose. A total of 40 043 people have received their booster shots so far.
National Coordinator in the Covid-19 response team, Dr Agnes Mahomva told Sunday News that the public must not be complacent despite a sharp decrease in the number of deaths and new infections. This comes as the country has in the past week recorded a significant decline in new Covid-19 cases and deaths as compared to the previous week.
According to figures from the Ministry of Health and Child Care as of Friday the country recorded 1 883 new cases and 41 deaths as compared to the previous week where the country recorded 3 643 new cases and 83 deaths.
As of Friday the National Recovery rate was pegged at 93 percent compared to 92 percent the previous week. In terms of active cases the country had 3 526 active case last week compared to 8 222 in the previous week.
"It is true our numbers seem to be stabilising. You are aware that the number of cases is slowly going down, we are slowly coming out of the fourth wave so naturally when you get smaller numbers of cases the chances of you also having numbers of deaths going down also increase, that is basically what it is.
"I think we should also remember that the vaccination programme continues to be ramped up and we do believe that this is contributing quite a lot in terms of ensuring that people are protected from severe disease and from dying. So while we still have numbers of people getting the infection, the chances of them getting severely ill or dying are also going down," she said.
Dr Mahomva said as long as the nation continues to record new cases, the country was not entirely out of danger.
"Our message, however, to Zimbabweans is that they should remain vigilant. As long as we have a number of new cases and deaths, we are still in danger. It is unfortunate that we see people getting so complacent and really wanting just to hear that the numbers are going down, that is not the critical issue.
"The most important issue is for us to remain vigilant, continue with the prevention measures whether it's social distancing, washing hands and sanitising. It is so critical and most important to get vaccinated. You really do not want to get the disease and start looking around to see what to do, prevention is the best way and vaccination is one of the strong prevention measures," she said.
Dr Mahomva said there was a need to take note that viruses change over time hence the possibility of a fifth wave was inevitable.
"As long as you are dealing with viruses, they mutate all the time, the chances of us having another wave and continuously having another wave all the time is still there. And note that this pandemic is new while we think it might follow what other viruses have done, the chances of it springing up something new on us is possible.
The message should not be about how things are settling, we need to get to the finish line, as long as we have people dying and new infections, it does not matter how small the numbers are, they can just easily go out of hand and we have seen this with the last wave, no one knows what is going to happen next," she said.
The latest development comes as Government has also indicated that the fourth wave was coming to end, but complacency might trigger a fifth wave. In Bulawayo, officials said mobile teams have been going round the city's suburbs in the door to door blitz, while other teams are being placed at strategic areas to expedite the exercise.
The city is among the leading places in vaccination figures with latest official figures showing that at least 52 percent of eligible people in the city have received the recommended two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. However, those already vaccinated have been encouraged to take a booster dose.
Bulawayo Provincial Medical Director, Dr Maphios Siamuchembu told Sunday News that the door-to-door drive was one of the strategies they were embarking on to ensure that they increase the number of people vaccinated and aid the country's response against the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The door-to-door campaign is one of our strategies which we have come up with that will see us get closer to the herd immunity. We have realised that people are no longer availing themselves to be vaccinated while vaccine doses are in abundance, actually we are even running out of storage because of the vaccines we have in the country.
Our aim for now is that we vaccinate most of those in the eligible population, as a city 52 percent of our eligible population have received all their doses, remember that for us to reach herd immunity we need at least 60 percent of the entire population to have vaccinated, inclusive of the children who are currently not eligible," said Dr Siamuchembu.
The Government has also stressed the need for communities to take up vaccination which has proved to be preventing serious illness and hospitalisation of people infected with Covid-19 in the country and beyond. So far 4 234 364 people have received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and 3 262 246 people have got their second dose. A total of 40 043 people have received their booster shots so far.
National Coordinator in the Covid-19 response team, Dr Agnes Mahomva told Sunday News that the public must not be complacent despite a sharp decrease in the number of deaths and new infections. This comes as the country has in the past week recorded a significant decline in new Covid-19 cases and deaths as compared to the previous week.
As of Friday the National Recovery rate was pegged at 93 percent compared to 92 percent the previous week. In terms of active cases the country had 3 526 active case last week compared to 8 222 in the previous week.
"It is true our numbers seem to be stabilising. You are aware that the number of cases is slowly going down, we are slowly coming out of the fourth wave so naturally when you get smaller numbers of cases the chances of you also having numbers of deaths going down also increase, that is basically what it is.
"I think we should also remember that the vaccination programme continues to be ramped up and we do believe that this is contributing quite a lot in terms of ensuring that people are protected from severe disease and from dying. So while we still have numbers of people getting the infection, the chances of them getting severely ill or dying are also going down," she said.
Dr Mahomva said as long as the nation continues to record new cases, the country was not entirely out of danger.
"Our message, however, to Zimbabweans is that they should remain vigilant. As long as we have a number of new cases and deaths, we are still in danger. It is unfortunate that we see people getting so complacent and really wanting just to hear that the numbers are going down, that is not the critical issue.
"The most important issue is for us to remain vigilant, continue with the prevention measures whether it's social distancing, washing hands and sanitising. It is so critical and most important to get vaccinated. You really do not want to get the disease and start looking around to see what to do, prevention is the best way and vaccination is one of the strong prevention measures," she said.
Dr Mahomva said there was a need to take note that viruses change over time hence the possibility of a fifth wave was inevitable.
"As long as you are dealing with viruses, they mutate all the time, the chances of us having another wave and continuously having another wave all the time is still there. And note that this pandemic is new while we think it might follow what other viruses have done, the chances of it springing up something new on us is possible.
The message should not be about how things are settling, we need to get to the finish line, as long as we have people dying and new infections, it does not matter how small the numbers are, they can just easily go out of hand and we have seen this with the last wave, no one knows what is going to happen next," she said.
Source - The Sunday News
