Vaccination is the way to go but it does not guarantee one will not die- Zimbabwe Minister says

HON. DR. MANGWIRO:  Thank you Hon. Speaker Ma’am.  I would like to thank Hon. Mliswa for that view. I repeat that out of the 207 people who died and postmortems, blood tests and fluid tests were done, 90% of them were unvaccinated. Of course, none of us here knows when they are going to die. What we are doing right now is what we know to prevent unnecessary deaths due to COVID. That is why we vaccinate people. It does not guarantee eternity.

So, it is important that every Zimbabwean’s duty is to prevent or protect every citizen, be it your family, workmate, school mates from getting this infection, the Sars-cov-2, the Coronavirus disease. Vaccination for now is the way to go just like we do with our children for diseases like polio, diphtheria and tetanus, getting vaccinations for our babies, but still a baby can die after a year and even after vaccination. I thank you Hon. Speaker Ma’am.

HON. TOFFA: Thank you Madam Speaker. Thank you Hon. Minister for the information about the 90% that have died not having been vaccinated.  How does that compare because only 10% of the nation has been vaccinated and you are talking about 90%? This is 90% of what and what percentage of the vaccinated has died? Thank you.

HON. DR. MANGWIRO: I will try to answer her question. Thank you Hon. Toffa. The population of Zimbabwe – we said we are aiming towards herd immunity. It cannot happen overnight. At one point it shall be 10% of the population vaccinated and 20% until we reach the herd immunity. The vaccines have been bought and they are in place. We will continue to vaccinate until we get the herd immunity, which is the safe number where we say people have been vaccinated to prevent passing on of the virus to others.

Vaccination still remains the same and the percentage of the people who have been vaccinated right away and off the cuff, it is difficult. What I know is that we are going towards getting what we call herd immunity.  Herd immunity does not say everyone is vaccinated. We have vaccinated enough numbers such that we can part the cycle of transmission. There are people who may not be vaccinated but it does not follow that they are all going to be vaccinated. We are just vaccinating enough people to say the passing on of the virus has been minimised to a level where it has become safe for us to open and run the economy properly. I thank you.

HON. MARKHAM:  Thank you Madam Speaker. Pertaining to vaccinations, could the Minister explain how undocumented people are getting vaccinated because I am being inundated with people who are being turned away from vaccination centres because they have no documents? I thank you.

HON. DR. MANGWIRO: Thank you Hon. Speaker. We have ways of identifying each other in Zimbabwe. If a person is from a certain area, we do not want them to be turned away. There must be a way of identifying them. If he is coming from high density or low density suburbs, surely there is a councillor or someone who can witness that they are from the village or if it is in rural areas, there are so many ways of identifying each other. We do not necessarily want to have someone chased away and yet you know who he is.  This disease is serious and so we want every Zimbabwean to be vaccinated. We try by all means to make sure that the vaccination is done. We do not want anyone turned away because today he is not carrying an I. D. card yet he has come with the wife or husband who can correctly identify them. We definitely want us to get vaccinated and we try as much as possible, where there is a doubt, to get assistance and make sure that everyone gets vaccinated without problems. I thank you.

HON. NDUNA: Thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am and thank you Hon. Minister for the incisive answer. Seeing that His Excellency has proclaimed the coming down of Level 4 to Level 2 in terms of the lockdown, would it please the Minister to weekly give this House an update in terms of us achieving herd immunity he had proposed, of vaccinating 60% of the population as to how far we are now and how far we will be then? I thank you.

HON. DR. MANGWIRO: Thank you Hon. Nduna. It will be done.  Thank you.

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