The government of Zimbabwe said it has mobilized a total of $100 million to buy doses of Covid-19 vaccine. The objective is to inoculate 60% of the population to achieve herd immunity.

Under this plan, the country is expecting at least 20 million doses of the vaccine through an initiative by the African Union. The money will be taken from the country’s 2020 and 2021 budgets.

"The government has set aside 100 million U.S. dollars for the vaccines to procure around 20 million vaccine doses to immunize 60 percent of the population, which will help us attain herd immunity. So we are now waiting for the scientists to tell us which vaccine to buy and where to procure it from," said George Guvamatanga (pictured), Zimbabwe's Permanent Secretary for Finance and Economic Development.

The type of vaccine to be purchased has not been disclosed, but those from Pfizer and AstraZeneca could be the first to arrive in the country.

In addition to the mechanism set up by the AU to purchase vaccines on behalf of its member countries, Zimbabwe is a member of the WHO Covax initiative, which aims to provide 2 billion doses of vaccine to developing countries by the end of this year.

Mechanisms should enable the authorities to begin their immunization campaign when many private-sector employers have already started plans to purchase vaccines for their workers. Their incomes have been affected by the restrictive measures that prevent economic activity from continuing and threaten to plunge a large part of the population into precariousness.

According to the latest figures, Zimbabwe officially has 33,548 cases of covid-19 with 26,583 recoveries and 1,334 deaths.

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou