THE Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) has a SARS-C0V-2 Monitoring and Evaluation group for the national vaccination rollout processes.
By Michael Gwarisa
According to the ministry of health, the team is made up of members from various fields of expertise.
There are currently over 15 vaccines at various stages of evaluation on the World Health Organisation (WHO) emergency use list. Zimbabwe has procured a SARS-CoV-2 attenuated/inactivated vaccine (Sinopharm) which is being deployed in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.
“However, as we go along vaccinating our people of different categories and age, monitoring will continue as per our standard operating procedures for any new medicine or vaccine. There is therefore need to monitor and evaluate the vaccine as the rollout process progresses. It is against this background that the Ministry of Health and Child Care formulated a group of experts to carry out the monitoring and evaluation activities. The group members are derived from MOHCC, Academia, Research and Clinical practice,” said the ministry of health.
In Zimbabwe, over 35,000 cases of SARS-C0V-2 infections and over 1,500 deaths have been recorded.
Various interventions, behavioral, therapeutic and vaccines have been deployed to reduce the morbidity and/or mortality associated with the SARS-CoV-2 infection. Some of these interventions such as vaccines have the potential to be significantly compromised by the emergence and spread of new SARS-CoV-2 variants associated with viral drift.
