HARARE (XINHUA) – Zimbabwe has vaccinated over 40 per cent of its eligible population against COVID-19, achieving herd immunity in some of its towns and cities.
This is Zimbabwe’s milestone in the fight against the pandemic, said Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa when opening the 3rd Session of the Zimbabwe-Botswana Bi-National Commission in the resort town of Victoria Falls on Friday.
“Our robust vaccination drive has seen us vaccinating over 40 per cent of the eligible population nationwide, with a number of towns and cities, including the City of Victoria Falls, achieving herd immunity,” he said.
Zimbabwe kick-started its national vaccination programme in February last year after receiving a donation of 200,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from China.
Since then, the country has secured over 20 million doses of vaccines.
Over the past week, the Zimbabwean government extended COVID-19 vaccination to adolescents aged 12 to 15 in line with medical advice, as it seeks to boost the number of vaccinated people in the country.
Zimbabwe aims to vaccinate at least 10 million people out of its population of about 14 million to achieve herd immunity.
The southern African country is among the 15 African countries that have already achieved the target set by the World Health Organization (WHO) to fully vaccinate 10 per cent of their populations by September 2021.
As of Thursday, 3,381,046 people in the country had been fully inoculated and 113,462 had received a booster shot.
To date, the country has recorded 234,967 cases with 225,447 recoveries and 5,390 deaths.
