Britain has offered to vaccinate 20 percent of Zimbabwe’s population against the COVID-19 pandemic, the state-controlled Herald newspaper reported on Thursday.
The 20 percent will cover the most vulnerable three million people in the country.
UK’s ambassador to Zimbabwe Melaine Robinson made the commitment when she met Vice President and Health Minister Constantino Chiwenga on Wednesday.
“We discussed COVID-19 and particularly vaccines. The UK has been a leading country in the world putting the Covax together. We have put over 700 million U.S. dollars into making sure that the lower-middle-income countries can vaccinate their most vulnerable populations,” she said.
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She said Zimbabwe was on track to become one of the countries that would benefit from the vaccine, adding that distribution would start when the right immunity against COVID-19 is available.
Chiwenga said Zimbabwe will prioritize vaccination of frontline health care workers and other critical groups like the elderly.
“Once we have accepted the 20 percent which is being offered, we also look at our own resources to ensure the rest of the population are covered,” he said.
As of Wednesday, Zimbabwe had registered 12, 656 COVID-19 cases, 10, 259 recoveries and 330 deaths.
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