BY NIZBERT MOYO
A PRESSURE group, the Citizens COVID-19 Monitoring Mechanism, has warned the government against partisan distribution of the vaccine for the coronavirus, whose vaccination programme will start this week.
This follows the arrival of 200 000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine donated by China, which were received yesterday morning by the government and will undergo a 48-hour verification exercise.
Spokesperson for the Citizens COVID-19 Mechanism, Effie Ncube told Southern Eye that the vaccination programme for the global respiratory disease should be led by scientists not by politicians.
He said his concerns arose from the fact that in the past, humanitarian aid and food handouts ended up benefiting Zanu PF supporters.
“The most important thing is to get the vaccine to the people. Proper logistics must be put in place, as well as storage facilities,” Ncube said.
“The government must also ensure that everyone gets the vaccine without consideration as to the political affiliation that they belong to.
“What we have seen in the past is that the government has been distributing other humanitarian aid such as farming inputs and food handouts to Zanu PF supporters only.
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“They are the ones that have been benefiting from different programmes at the expense of other citizens,” he said.
Government plans to inoculate approximately 10 million citizens to achieve herd immunity.
Frontline workers, the elderly, and those with underlying health conditions would get preferential treatment when the inoculation exercise begins.
Government has also procured another 600 000 doses of the same vaccine, but the second lot is expected into the country early next month.
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