Zimbabwe renews Covid-19 vax drive, targets schoolkids

Harare (Zimbabwe), March 24

Zimbabwe has launched a new Covid-19 vaccination campaign that includes jabbing children aged 12 and above to rescue a drive faltering due to vaccine hesitancy and complacency.

This week schools in the southern African country have become vaccination zones with children in school uniforms lining up to get the injections.

Many parents said they supported the vaccination drive to prevent schools from becoming centres of infection, although others remained sceptical.

“Let them get vaccinated, it will save us a lot of trouble. Maybe it will stop the constant closures of schools … the online lessons drain us each time the schools are closed,” said Helen Dube, a parent walking her 12-year-old daughter to a school in the crowded Chitungwiza town, about 30 km southeast of capital Harare.

“Plus, if schools are safe then we are also safe at home,” she said, referring to instances when schools have become centres of virus infection.

Zimbabwe is gradually returning to its normal school calendar after two years of intermittent and sometimes prolonged closures due to waves of Covid-19 cases. — AP

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