Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube has said the government is targeting to vaccinate 10 million or 60% of Zimbabwe’s population which according to him will be herd immunization. According to Professor Mthuli Ncube, the government has set aside $100 million for the 10 million doses.
Ncube was speaking during an interview with The Anchor when he said:
We have set aside a minimum of US$100 million equivalent for the vaccine and the way we have calculated is we are assuming the cost of US$5 a shot and multiply that by TWO as each person will get TWO shots.
We are targeting 10 million citizens which is about the herd immunity [and] is about 60 percent of the population.
We have adequate resources, mobilized adequate resources in our budget to be able to meet the cost of the vaccine. All options are on the table, we are negotiating with China, India and Russia.
He also spoke about the government’s efforts to fight the pandemic and said they have used over ZWL $25 Billion for different reasons during the pandemic:
Since March last year we have used ZWL25 Billion and it has been spread right across different aspects namely to cover the risk allowances of health workers and other frontline workers. It covered the upgrade of health facilities and also there have procurement of other materials, drugs, PPEs among other things we need to fight this pandemic.
A Ministry of Health official has said vaccines will be administered to ministers, MPs, Frontline workers, and security forces first when they are eventually available.
More: The Anchor
