“More Local, More Inclusive, More Interactive"
Central government's pledges to rehabilitate local hospitals such as Manama (pictured) have remained largely unfulfill...
Continue Reading...
A leaner reacts while being vaccinated at a school. Image by AP
BY MUSA MAKINA | @The_CBNews | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | APR 8, 2022
Hesitancy, and the fear of the unknown coupled with disinformation and myths pushed many to shun COVID-19 vaccination when it was first introduced in Bulawayo and other parts of the country.
BULAWAYO (The Citizen Bulletin) — A parent Nomalanga Mlilo says it had to take a lot of convincing for her 13-year old son to take a COVID-19 jab.
“When he came home, he gave me a form of consent from the school where as a parent I was supposed to sign either rejecting or accepting that he be jabbed,” Mlilo says.
“I had to sit down with him and explain the importance and tell him that it’s not painful before I signed the form.”
On February 22, 2022, the central government extended the vaccination to 12 year olds, three months after the Health and Child Care minister started vaccinating teenagers’ from16 years.
Children were left out of the initial vaccination drive which targeted frontline workers such as health workers followed by the elderly and those with chronic diseases.
An investigation by The Citizen Bulletin in the country’s second city revealed that there was hesitancy among 12 year olds and teenagers before the vaccination was taken to schools.
While for adults the fear of taking the jab was based on the side effects and myths, for the pupils, it has been the injection phobia.
“When our headmaster announced that we were to be jabbed, we thought he was joking. But when we saw the nurses coming to our school we wanted to run away but they made sure no one ran.”
A Grade 7 pupil who could not be named on ethical grounds
A survey at some local schools showed that the programme was slowly picking up, albeit the phobia among students.
The vaccination programme at schools is being conducted in two phases until May. The first phase will end on 3 April while the second phase will run from 2 May to 15 May.
Bulawayo provincial medical director, Dr Maphios Siamuchembu says they vaccinated an average of 2500 people per day in Bulawayo last week, mostly students.
“We have managed to vaccinate over 18000 people in the last 7days. I am impressed by the uptake so far. We have made a lot of progress with more numbers coming for vaccination than we have had in a while,” Siamuchembu says.
“As a ministry, we have always supported health programmes and we are willing to support the vaccination drive as it will mean better health for our learners and teachers.”
Taungana Ndoro, Primary and Secondary Education spokesperson
“We will stand guided by health authorities and urge parents to appreciate public health initiatives.”
About 23% of Zimbabwe's 15 million people have received two jabs, mostly of the Chinese Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines, far short of the government's initial target of 60% by the end of 2021.
Data visualization by The Citizen Bulletin
Just over 8 million doses have been used out of more than 22 million in stock, according to the central government figures.
As the vaccination programme continues countrywide, 5 293 189 people have received their first dose, 3 529 646 received their second dose while 370 287 received their third dose.
ALSO READ: Binga Power Outages Force Mortuary Closure
Just over 5,400 people in Zimbabwe have died from COVID-19, according to official figures; although the toll is likely much higher because of undiagnosed or reported cases, according to health experts.
However, the national recovery rate remains at 96 percent and active cases go down to 2 566.
Do you have a hyperlocal story to share?
WhatsApp us on: +263 71 863 6459. Email us on: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Since You’re Here, We’ve a Small Request…
Our hard-hitting hyperlocal reporting and analysis reaches one in every three people across the greater region of Matabeleland, southwestern Zimbabwe. That means our content reaches approximately 60,000 readers each week. However, in order for our well-rounded journalism to reach more people who need it to make informed decisions about their lives and their communities, we need to build a strong audience of followers that would receive our rigorous reporting in just one place. Because of exorbitant internet data costs, we know most of our readers use messaging apps such as WhatsApp to get all our content in one place. But the platform, predominantly used by our readers, is not primarily designed for content distribution and reader engagement. That is why we’re building a WhatsApp Bot to navigate this challenge. But in order for this strategy to work effectively to serve our needs, we want all our casual readers like you to be part of our growing WhatsApp Community. To be part of this community of registered users, WhatsApp the word "JOIN" to +263 71 863 6459. We look forward to engaging and building a lasting relationship with you. Thank you.
This website uses cookies that are necessary to its functioning and required to achieve the purposes illustrated in the privacy policy. By accepting this OR scrolling this page OR continuing to browse, you agree to our privacy policy.
