Vice-chancellors, lecturers receive vaccines

Zimbabwe has started vaccinating vice-chancellors, university lecturers and staff against COVID-19 after placing them second on a priority list that has health workers at the top.

On 7 April, Professor Mqhele Dlodlo, the vice-chancellor, and the staff of the National University of Science and Technology were among the first academics to be vaccinated against COVID-19 when a team of health workers went to the campus located in the country’s second-largest city of Bulawayo.

The lecturers are being vaccinated together with school teachers, and the government says that students will be next in line.

With a population of about 15 million people, the country is targeting the vaccination of 60% of the population to reach herd immunity.

Late last month, the country accelerated the vaccination programme after receiving 1.2 million vaccine doses from China.

China also donated a further 400,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine and India gave 35,000 doses of Covaxin. This means the country has taken delivery of a total of 1,635 million doses in vaccines.

Emmerson Mnangagwa, the president of Zimbabwe, recently announced that other vaccines, from Russia, India and the United Kingdom, were also on their way.

Voluntary and free vaccinations

In an interview with University World News, the National COVID-19 taskforce chief coordinator, Dr Agnes Mahomva, said the country was targeting the vaccination of all lecturers, but the programme was voluntary and free.

“We have started the programme and the target is all lecturers must be vaccinated. Learners and students are not affected the most, hence the prioritisation of lecturers, then we go to students,” she said.

“Everybody who is above 18 will [eventually] be vaccinated. There are some who have already been vaccinated based on their comorbidities; we talk of the disabled, and so on.

“The prioritisation is purely to make sure that we get those at the highest risk first. But the vaccination programme is going to vaccinate everybody. Voluntary, free of charge, of course, until we reach herd immunity,” Mahomva said.

Zimbabwe State Universities Union of Academics’ Givewell Munyaradzi said the issue of being vaccinated or not against COVID-19 boiled down to an individual’s decision and the union was not forcing members.

“We are saying those who want can go if they want; we don’t force [anyone]. They must volunteer. As a leadership, we have not taken a position,” he said.

According to Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Health and Child Care, as of 6 April, 139,133 people had been vaccinated.

The country has recorded 36,966 confirmed cases and 1,531 COVID-19-related deaths.