THE overwhelming response for inoculation against Covid-19 has resulted in the vaccine occasionally running out at health centres around Masvingo Town.
Long queues are being witnessed at the vaccination centres in the Ancient City including the Masvingo General Hospital and local council clinics in Rujeko, Mucheke and Runyararo West.
This has resulted in an outcry from the public who are turned away at the vaccination centres for lack of either the first or second doses of the vaccines.
Most affected are higher learning institutions’ students where college authorities have decreed only vaccinated learners would be allowed to attend lectures and the recently recruited government teachers joining thousands of other civil servants that have to comply with the government’s directive that all public workers should be vaccinated against the deadly pandemic.
The government has ordered that all government employees must be vaccinated before 15 October or risk disciplinary action.
Masvingo Covid-19 Provincial Taskforce spokesperson, Rodgers Irimayi confirmed to NewZimbabwe.com that Covid-19 vaccinations were regularly running out the stock. He attributed this to the overwhelming response from members of the public.
“Vaccines come in batches and they are dispatched to provinces, districts and vaccination centres as they come. As soon as the country receives, they are allocated to provinces where they are quickly exhausted,” he said.
“The vaccination programme is going on and queues in some areas have since disappeared, but in other areas mostly urban areas, they are still being noticed.
“The issue of queues is related to the population density in particular areas. Where we have high populations, we experience high turnout and overwhelming responses at vaccination centres.
“The vaccines continue to be allocated to vaccination centres in batches as the province receives from what the country imports,” Irimayi said.