By Canisius Mushibwe
Following the advent of the new Covid-19 variant –Omicron– in Southern parts of Africa, Zimbabwe has started a new round of vaccination.
The initiative comes a day after President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s announcement of new plans to mitigate the spread of Omicron.
Zimbabwe has 134,625 Covid 19 cases and about 4 million people vaccinated with the first dose while only 2.7 million are fully vaccinated.
Itai Rusike, a public health practitioner told Africa News that the situation is likely to be overwhelming as there will be a lot of Zimbabweans living in South Africa and Botswana travelling back home over the festive season.
“We are aware that we have got a lot of Zimbabweans that are based in South Africa and Botswana, and the majority of them were going to come back home for the festive season and it then creates that challenge, the risk of transmission, given the fact that our land borders are very porous,” Rusike said.
The Omicron mutation discovery has caused panic among the UK, European and American countries spurring suspension of flights from eight Southern African countries.
However, the move has been criticised by SADC and the World Health Organisation and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has called the move of banning flights from the southern region unjustified.
It is reported that passengers have been stranded at airports across South Africa since Friday last week because of the air travel suspension. This means that people will not be reunited with their families during this festive season.
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