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Zimbabwe Says It’s Prepared for Omicron Variant

Credits: Voice of America

by Columbus Mavhunga

HARARE — Zimbabwe’s government says the country is very prepared to handle the new COVID-19 variant – omicron – first reported in neighboring South Africa. The World Health Organization says a fourth wave of the pandemic is most likely to hit Africa.

Zimbabwe’s Vice President Constantino Chiwenga – who doubles as the country’s health minister – has asked the nation not to be concerned about omicron.

“The country should not panic because we are very prepared. The ramping up of our vaccination program in the past month has seen marked increase in the vaccination uptake. That is the prevention which we are going to have for our people if any other variant comes. At least when your body is protected it is much better than when you are found naked,” said the vice president.

Zimbabwe has fully inoculated about 2.8 million people since February, when it began its vaccination program to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. The government has a target of vaccinating at least 10 million Zimbabweans — or 60% of the population — by the end of the year, a figure which might be difficult to reach given the scarcity of resources and short time left.

Itai Rusike, head of the nonprofit Community Working Group on Health, said Zimbabweans should panic about the new variant – initially named B.1.1.529 – since the country shares porous borders with South Africa and Botswana.

“And this new variant is coming at a time when the festive season is upon us. A whole lot of Zimbabweans, they use undesignated entry points. That poses a serious health challenge as they would not be properly screened and monitored as they come back to the country. What we want to encourage the government of Zimbabwe, is for them to strengthen their surveillance and monitoring system especially the land borders and make sure that the screening and monitoring at the entry points is also strengthened,” said Rusike.

Meanwhile, Humphrey Karamagi, a medical officer at the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa, said on the WHO Twitter account that a fourth wave of COVID-19 is likely to hit the continent.

“A fourth wave in Africa is almost a certainty, as long as we have these factors in play, which is new variants coming up and the fact that people can be reinfected. And also, if we are getting new population who may not have been exposed. We would then have subsequent waves. Vaccination helps a lot in terms of reducing the severity of the disease [and] also reducing the risk of infection. The vaccine is not a magic bullet. So the vaccine is to work together with the public health measures to reduce the potential and risks of subsequent waves,” said Karamagi.

The WHO says COVID-19 has infected about 6.1 million people in Africa and claimed 152,113 lives. The world health body also says more than 227 million vaccine doses have been administered in Africa.

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Zimbabwe Starts Vaccinating Teens Against COVID-19

Credits: Voice of America

by Columbus Mavhunga

HARARE — President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government has announced it is starting to vaccinate Zimbabwe’s teenagers over the age of 16 against COVID-19, which has claimed nearly 5,000 lives and infected 13,000 in the country. Public health experts welcome the move.

Zimbabwe’s acting Health and Child Care Minister Amon Murwira told journalists late Monday that the country had so far managed to vaccinate 38% of the population.

He then announced the recommendation regarding those over the age of 16.

“Based on the available scientific data in line with the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe guide, the specialist pediatricians have recommended a vaccination of the 16 to 17 years age group with the Sinovac COVID19 vaccine,” said Murwira.

“The protocol of the younger age groups is still under consideration. The ministry wishes to advise the public that COVID19 vaccination of the 16 to 17 years age groups has been approved. The government of Zimbabwe through the Ministry of Health and Childcare is determined that Zimbabwe achieves herd immunity by end December 2021,” he added.

Dr. Norman Matara, the head of Zimbabwe Association for Doctors for Human Rights, is hopeful the move would increase the number of people getting vaccinated and will push the country further to achieving head immunity.

“This is a welcome move, but we just hope that the vaccine will continue to be voluntary and that these teenagers will not be mandated to get vaccines in schools and colleges. But people should just continue to voluntarily get the vaccines,” he said.

Itai Rusike, head of nonprofit Community Working Group on Health in Zimbabwe, commended the government for the announcement as it helps the country reach its target of vaccinating at least 10 million Zimbabweans — or 60% of the population — by the end of the year.

“This is important in order to prevent the teenagers from COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and even death, especially from the looming threat of the new delta variant. It is also important that the school health coordinators are equipped with the necessary COVID-19 vaccine literacy so that they can then assist in educating the students, the teachers and support staff on the importance of getting vaccinated. It is also important that the community leaders should play a critical role in being our COVID-19 champions and ambassadors so that they can encourage the parents and the children within their communities to embrace the vaccines,” said Rusike.

Zimbabwe has fully inoculated just above 2.6 million people since February when it began its vaccination program to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Addressing vaccine hesitancy: need to urgently tackle myths, misinformation

ZIMBAMBWE needs to urgently address the Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy that is discouraging ordinary people from taking up the life-saving jabs at a time the number of people dying from the contagious disease continues to surge on a daily basis. The number of people dying daily, about a 100 a day, is horrific and must be stopped forthwith through proactive measures by government, communities and other able stakeholders.

The Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) is worried that people continue to die because they are reluctant to receive the free inoculations because of the widely- held myths, misconception as well as misinformation peddled mainly through the social media that the vaccines are not safe. The rate of vaccine uptake in some communities is frightening low and it calls for urgent proactive actions to encourage people to freely accept vaccination. In wake of this hesitancy and the mounting deaths, the CWGH would like to call on the government to urgently institute national Covid-19 vaccine literacy programmes to specifically debunk the myths and deconstruct the misinformation that has resulted in unnecessary deaths in the country. CWGH has established that a number of people still believe the vaccines can result in serious health complications later, death or infertility, theories that have been proven false.

This can also be achieved if the government works closely with trusted and influential sources of information which include community leaders such a traditional leaders, teachers, businesspeople, pastors and community-based organizations that have been sources of credible information for the local people for a long time. People believe what
they get from people or sources they trust. CWGH would like to call upon all influential people and community-based organizations to influence their people in their communities to accept and embrace vaccines because they are not toxic as claimed by purveyors of false information. People have a tendency to believe what they read on social media which in most cases would not be true.

This is no time to play politics or gaining religious advantages by exploiting people’s ignorance or mistrust of certain issues. One life lost is one too many as vaccines are safe, effective an save lives As an organization deeply rooted in the communities, CWGH has established that community leadership in an aspect of life is an important contributor to social development. Elected officials and community leaders play significant roles in times of disasters like the Covid-19 pandemic in both receiving and delivering messages and information. Apart from releasing regular information to the general public, CWGH would like to urge the government, through the various Covid-19 committees, to give regular briefs and updates to the community leaders, who would act as ambassadors and champions in the fight against the pandemic.

We would want to reiterate that community leaders are valuable sources of information and government agencies must always seek to create a relationship with them to facilitate the exchange of information. The Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) is a network of national membership based civil society and community based organizations who aim to collectively enhance community participation in health in Zimbabwe.

_____________________
Itai Rusike (Mr)
Executive Director

Community Working Group on Health (CWGH)
4 O’connor Crescent, Cranborne, Eastlea, Harare, Zimbabwe

Mobile: +263 77236 3991
Tel: +263-4-573285|573286
Email: itai@cwgh.co.zw
Website: www.cwgh.co.zw
“Health is Your Right and Responsibility”

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Government should urgently provide suitable and adequate PPE to frontline health workers

The Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) is gravely concerned by the current  massive shortage of personal protective equipment (PPEs) for frontline health workers  in the country in the wake of the infectious COVID-19 pandemic that has wreaked havoc  globally. Healthcare workers rely on PPE to protect themselves and their patients from  being infected and infecting others during their course of duty.  

Surprisingly, the shortages come at a time when our COVID-19 cases are escalating due  to the deadly second wave of transmission, spike in mortality rates and the threat of the  highly contagious new strain of COVID-19. It is sad and very worrying to hear that  nurses at Sally Mugabe hospital have downed tools citing the unavailability of PPE, a  move that could plunge the country’s COVID-19 response deeper into the doldrums.  The government should urgently equip medical staff with PPE and offering them safe  transport to and from work daily. 

It must be noted that shortages of PPEs have left doctors, nurses and other  frontline health workers dangerously exposed and ill-equiped to take care of the  increasing COVID-19 patients or suspects because of their limited access to  supplies such as gloves, masks, aprons, respirators, goggles and gowns. The  COVID-19 response cannot be done without valuing and protecting our health  workers. It is worrying to hear that some health workers are being given just one mask  for the whole week, despite the fact some are intended for one-time use and disposal.  There have also been reports of some health workers sharing same gown with some  reusing PPEs over prolonged periods.  

The government must do everything within its means to avail PPEs to health workers  because failure to do so would lead to unprecedented levels of burnout and disease. This  would cripple the health system’s ability to continue caring for the sick and putting an  end to the pandemic. 

Itai Rusike (Mr) 

Executive Director 

Community Working Group on Health (CWGH)

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‘COVID-19 fourth wave imminent’

BY MOSES MUGUGUNYEKI/NQOBANI NDLOVU

HEALTH experts have warned that Zimbabwe faces a fourth wave of deadly COVID-19 virus if the country fails to get more people inoculated, and that a third jab might be needed to help fight off emerging variants.

The fourth wave will be “more serious” and was likely to hit the country by year end at a time when the health system is broken from years of neglect and personnel shortages.

While the country has been recording falling numbers of new infections and deaths as the end of the winter season approaches, the Health ministry statistics on COVID-19 on Saturday revealed that the country is still in the red zone after recording 445 new cases; pushing the cumulative total to 115 890. It also recorded 21 deaths on the same day, raising the national death toll to 3 826.

Zimbabwe is currently experiencing a third wave of the global pandemic, with the Delta variant, a strain of COVID-19 taking its toll. The variant has been identified in at least 85 countries in the world.

Other variants of concern include Alpha, which was first identified in the United Kingdom, Beta, which was identified in neighbouring South Africa, Gamma identified in Brazil and Delta, identified in India.

Public health expert and president of the Medical and Dental Private Practitioners Association of Zimbabwe Johannes Marisa yesterday said a more deadly wave of COVID-19 was likely hit the country by the end of the year.

He said after nine months, COVID-19 jabs would be useless, adding that by the complacent behaviour of people who relax once they see the number of infections declining the situation maybe worse.  He said some countries were already advocating for third jabs to intensify immunity.

“We are likely to face the fourth wave of COVID-19 around October to December,” Marisa said.

“Look at what is happening throughout the world. The United States is already facing trouble with the fourth wave. The world is panicking with some countries advocating for third jabs in order to boost the immune system. The passive immunity we get from jabs will last for nine months, that is disastrous, it means after nine months the jabs will be useless,” he said.

Marisa said Zimbabwe was likely to miss out on the third jabs considering the way the vaccination programme was being administered.

He said countries such as the US, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Tunisia were already on the edge of the fourth wave of the pandemic.

Marisa said some of the cases likely to fuel the fourth wave would emanate from countries such as South Africa and UK, which have since eased COVID-19 restrictions and warned that Zimbabwe should not follow suit.

“With the world behaving like this, I foresee disaster. How can a country like South Africa, which is in the midst of a frightening Delta-fuelled spike in infections, relax its restrictions? How can the UK remove all the COVID-19 restrictions?  Look now, there is a spike in new infections in those countries,” he said.

Zimbabwe is targeting to vaccinate 60% of its population (approximately 10 million people) to achieve herd immunity and Marisa said this should be accelerated.

“This is the time to get people vaccinated or else we might have a fourth wave. However, the exercise had been slow, politicised and communities are failing to abide by COVID-19 regulations and there is political expediency at the expense of protecting people,” Marisa said.

Community Working Group on Health executive director Itai Rusike said the fourth wave was imminent as the vaccination rates of most African countries, Zimbabwe included, remained low with less than 2% of the population having been fully vaccinated.

As of Saturday, 1 002 261 people in the country had been fully vaccinated.

“Our biggest worry is on the unvaccinated population and the schoolchildren that are not yet being vaccinated.  A lot more schoolchildren that are not yet eligible for vaccination will be infected by the highly virulent Delta variant and this will be a pandemic for the unvaccinated with catastrophic consequences to the already broken and overwhelmed public health delivery services that are failing to manage the high number of people needing hospitalisation,” Rusike said.

“There is need to strengthen the health delivery services by recruiting and retaining more workers, increasing hospital beds, provision of liquid oxygen and suitable personal protective equipment (PPE) and making sure that there are reasonable incentives for the health workers who are continuing to risk their health in order to save lives.”

Zimbabwe Nurses Association president Enock Dongo said the mass exodus of health personnel, especially nurses, will further put pressure on the country’s already overwhelmed health delivery system amid new deadlier variants of COVID-19.

“We are in a war due to the COVID-19 situation, and the people that are fighting that war have to be motivated, but sadly they are demotivated and intimidated by the system. Nurses are leaving the country in numbers although we do not have ready statistics of those that have left in recent weeks,” Dongo said.

Chief co-ordinator of the COVID-19 taskforce, Agnes Mahomva yesterday said:  “We are prepared for everything.  We continue to analyse these pandemics, and if you recall, we quickly responded to the first and second waves of the pandemic.  For the third wave, we were up to the task and measures were put in place to contain the spread of the disease, and within a month we are seeing the figures going down.  We have a strategic plan to deal with the pandemic whether it is first, second, third or fourth wave.”

Health deputy minister John Mangwiro refused to comment on the mass exodus of nurses during the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, saying that that was a “human resources department matter”.

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World Malaria Day 2021- Ending Malaria is Within Reach

World Malaria Day 2021

We mark World Malaria Day on 25 April. The theme for this year is Zero Malaria – Draw the Line against Malaria. We draw the line against malaria by taking action to end the disease at this time when COVID-19 has made the fight to end malaria harder. On this day, we highlight and appreciate efforts that have been made over the years to control malaria and celebrate the gains made to date.

Since 2000, the world has made historic progress against malaria saving millions of lives. According to the World Health Organization’s world malaria report 2020, 7.6 million malaria-related deaths have been averted since 2000. This is a huge success resulting from concerted efforts by Governments, partners and multilateral institutions such as the Global Fund partnership, which provides 56% of all international financing for malaria, and has invested more than US$13.5 billion in malaria control programs since the year 2002. Half of the world still lives at risk of malaria. 409,000 people died from the disease in 2019. An estimated two thirds of these deaths are among children under the age of five. Every two minutes, a child dies from malaria. These statistics should make us restless, especially because malaria is a preventable and treatable disease.

As malaria continued to fight back and cause needless deaths, COVID-19 struck, complicating the efforts to end malaria. The COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions related to the response caused disruptions to essential malaria services. Initial messaging that targeted to reduce coronavirus transmission advised the public to stay at home if they had fever, potentially disrupting treatment for those who may have had malaria and needed treatment. The lock down also slowed down malaria prevention programmes such as the distribution of mosquito nets. This disruption to malaria prevention and treatment will increase deaths from the disease and potentially lead to a surge in deaths in subsequent years. Children and pregnant women particularly remain at great risk. The fight against malaria must remain a priority to protect the progress made to defeat the disease. This calls for high impact investments in education, prevention, diagnosis and treatment, including research and development. Key to fighting malaria is building stronger health systems, which have been weakened further by the onset of COVID-19. To achieve this, there is need for stronger political leadership, more funding and increased innovation. Community engagement,
robust partnerships with private sector, foundations, academia, Government, civil society, for mutual planning, execution and accountabilities.

There is need for a cross cutting approach that unites human, animal and environmental health interventions to achieve desired public health outcomes. This is because some human diseases are shared with animals, other diseases such as malaria are related to the environment while other emerging diseases such as COVID-19 are associated with wildlife. Continuing to invest in research & development and scaling up country-driven solutions as well as innovations such as real-time data and next generation nets will help us stay ahead of the mosquito and its killer tactics. Social and gender norms that present barriers to access to healthcare  especially among women from poor and vulnerable households who are often primary caregivers should be addressed. These actions to beat malaria must strongly engage communities and the youth including in aspects of advocacy through participatory approaches such as peer-to-peer initiatives. Communities must be at the heart of the malaria response. In the face of COVID-19, it is time for rigorous efforts to protect everyone who is at risk of malaria and to guard the tremendous strides made in fighting the disease. There is a lot of focus to beat COVID-19 but this must not be at the expense of accelerating progress against malaria. Malaria investments can be leveraged to fight COVID-19 and emerging diseases by promoting and facilitating safe and timely treatment of fever and ensuring that health workers are adequately
protected and equipped.

Critically, malaria programmes must be integrated with broader efforts to build stronger systems for health, which are anchored on established community health systems. Further, ending endemic diseases such as malaria will contribute to strengthening fragile health systems and beating pandemics like COVID-19 because ending malaria will reduce the burden on health systems and increase capacity to detect, prevent, and respond to pandemics. Despite the added challenges by COVID-19, malaria elimination remains a viable goal towards achieving universal healthcare coverage so that every Zimbabwean has access to efficient, effective and affordable healthcare wherever they are and whenever they need it without facing financial difficulties. Malaria elimination is possible. Zero malaria is within reach. The Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) is a network of national membership based civil society and community based organizations who aim to collectively enhance community participation in health in Zimbabwe.

For further information, please contact;
_____________________
Itai Rusike (Mr)
Executive Director

Community Working Group on Health (CWGH)
4 O’connor Crescent, Cranborne
Harare, Zimbabwe

Mobile: +263 77236 3991 / 0719363991
Tel: +263-242-573285|573286
Email: itai@cwgh.co.zw
Website: www.cwgh.co.zw
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