COAST NOT CLEAR YET, GET VACCINATED: Ministry of Health embarks on door-to-door vaccination drive

JOHN Chewe (not real name), lost his livelihood during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As soon as Zambia went into lock down in March 2020, he was laid off as a senior sales consultant at a travel and tour operator in Livingstone.

As the months passed, he found it increasingly hard to survive and provide for his family of five and care for his elderly mother.

“It was a very difficult, challenging period. I also had a loan and I didn’t know how to pay it,” he says.

Nonetheless, he was not so much afraid of the financial problems as he was of the virus.

“It was scary. Whenever I interacted with my mother, I wore gloves and masks, because she is very old. I was afraid somebody would die from the virus,” says Mr Chewe, who has since relocated to Solwezi where he recently found a job. 

“But thankfully, we didn’t get Covid, because I don’t know what we would have done.” 

Mr Chewe, like many of his peers, had been skeptical about COVID-19 vaccines on the market – largely due to lack of access to accurate and reliable information.

“We heard all kinds of things. Some said you won’t be able to have children if you are vaccinated,” he says.

With so much misinformation and rumours circulating in the communities, providing reliable and factual information is essential to encourage Mr Chewe and others in his community to get vaccinated.

It is for this reason that the Ministry of Health is embarking on a countrywide door-to-door COVID-19 vaccination campaign programme. The goal of the initiative is to provide information and raise awareness on the importance of COVID-19 vaccination among the marginalised and also vaccine-hesitant groups.

Zambia National Public Health Institute (ZNPHI) director Roma Chilengi says the exercise is aimed at beating the required 70 percent herd immunity target by June this year.

COVID-19 vaccination uptake has drastically reduced, raising fears and concerns that if this situation continues the coronavirus will continue mutating and a new variant could emerge.

Currently Zambia has vaccinated about 22 percent of the required 70 percent to attain herd immunity. 

“When you get vaccinated, you get a personal benefit from the vaccine. What we want is to get the eligible population to vaccinate. If we get to something like 60 to 70 percent of them vaccinated, then we would be making progress,” he says

“When we get to 70 percent herd immunity, it will mean that we have a lot of people vaccinated and cannot infect other people. That way, you are reducing and killing the chances of the virus from progressing further.”

Prof. Chilengi says currently, about 10,000 vaccinations are done on a daily basis.

“Beginning next month [May], we shall kick-start this exercise. Teams are getting trained and logistics are being put in place as we speak. We want to vaccinate as many people as possible and ensure that those requiring booster shots get them so that we get to the required numbers,” he says.

Of the 22 percent vaccinated population so far, Western Province has the highest number and Lusaka has the lowest. A vigorous advocacy strategy has since been mounted to ensure that even those with mythical disbeliefs get vaccinated.

This article was also published in the Zambia Daily Mail newspaper of April 26, 2022 on this link http://www.daily-mail.co.zm/coast-not-clear-yet-get-vaccinated/