By MTHANDAZO NYONI THE country’s second largest city, Bulawayo, will soon become the second city after Victoria Falls to achieve herd immunity, with 64% of the targeted population having received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines so far, Vice-President and Health minister Constantino Chiwenga has said.
Officiating at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) interna tional business conference held in Bulawayo yesterday, Chiwenga urged Zimbabweans to embrace government’s vaccination programme.
“The new normal and restrictions on physical interactions have, unfortunately, (affected) our tourism industry. This is despite the strategic nature of the industry around the globe,” he said.
Given this background, Chiwenga said it did not come as a surprise that all the economies that valued tourism had taken the lead in vaccinating their people against COVID-19.
“Here in Zimbabwe, tourism is a potential multibillion-dollar industry. Accordingly, we set out as government to ensure that Victoria Falls, as one of our prime tourist attractions, reaches herd immunity through vaccination of its residents. I am happy to say we have achieved 100% herd immunity in Victoria Falls,” he said.
“I am also happy that pretty soon, Bulawayo will be one of the cities to achieve herd immunity because we have already exceeded, for the first dose, 64% for Bulawayo and it will be a matter of weeks before everybody surpasses the 60% for both jabs, that’s the first and second doses.”
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Bulawayo has a population of about 639 722.
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