So this morning Zimbabwe received its first vaccine batch. A whole 200 000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from China. That’s the first glimmer of hope we have had since the whole pandemic began and naturally with more doses expected the attention has turned to how this vaccine will be administered. Well here is Zimbabwe’s vaccine Roll out plan.

According to the plan shared, Frontline workers will be the first to receive the vaccine followed by the elderly and prisoners and strangely refugees. The distribution of the vaccine will be in phases.

Phase 1 will inolve two stages:

Stage 1: Fontline workers:
- Health workers including nurses
- Border and Airport staff
- Funeral Parlour staff
- Security Personnel read soldiers and police here
Stage 2: The vulnerable and prisoners
- The elderly i.e. those above 60
- Those with chronic illnesses e.g. diabetes although it’s not clear whether this includes HIV patients
- Prisoners-this will definitely get tongues wagging
- Refugee camp inmates-even more tongues wagging

Then we have Phase 2 which only has one stage:

Teachers
Lecturers
College/School staff

Phase 3 will see the rest of the population getting vaccinated. Now curiously absent on that list are MPs, Ministers and Bigwigs. That is probably deliberate although they are almost certainly going to be the first to receive the vaccine under stage 1. Nothing unites Zimbabwe’s politicians more than personal gain. These people who let our roads to deteriorate on both local and national level as they bicker join hands willingly when it’s time to buy cars. They are probably united when it comes to getting the jab first.