Of Coffee With Yet More Shots

If you were having coffee with  would be happy to have you visit, grab a seat, put your feet up, what will your poison be? Happy Valentine’s day by the way and if you ever want to buy me flowers here is a bouquet suggestion…

….Also my birthday is in seven days *wink wink*

I didn’t write about Valentine’s but you should totally check out the song that is currently stuck in my head titled Juzi by a local Zim artist Kae Chaps in my last article. I mean he makes heartbreak seem so soulful, check for yourself and do let me know. For the more romantic you can even check out A Letter To My Crush which I wrote a few years back and yep still holds true. ^_^

If you were having coffee with me, well, you can have whatever you want, even a shot or two to celebrate.. does one need a reason to celebrate? Lockdown is supposed to end on February the 15^th, hey that’s today, the president will give a public address at a time later to be announced, I wonder if he will decide to extend the lockdown again…

Today in the morning Zimbabwe received its first batch of COVID vaccine, 200 000 doses of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccines a donation from our all-weather friends China. The vaccine was ferried by our national airline aboard the AirZimbabwe aircraft Chimanimani.. who knew it hard a name, not me.

The Sinovac requires two doses 3 weeks apart so that means this first batch is enough for 100 000 people. The government has also purchased another 600 000 vaccines from Sinopharm to be delivered in a month and the country is in advanced negotiations with Russia to acquire the Sputnik Vaccine.

The Minister of Health unveiled a vaccine rollout program highlighting how vaccination would be carried out:

First phase high risk population

Stage I frontline workers at significantly high risk of COVID-19. These include health workers Ports of Entry Personnel, ZIMRA, Immigration, Customs, funeral parlour, security personnel, Village Health Workers.

Stage II those with chronic illnesses, the elderly 60 years and above, inmates. prison population and others in confined settlements including refugee camps.

The second Phase

Will cater for lecturers, all schools staff population and other staff at medium risk depending with epidemiological picture of the disease.

The third phase

The relatively low risk until everyone not in phases two phases is covered

If you were having coffee with me I would tell how this seem like a perfectly laid plan and the minister assured that there’s adequate cold chain equipment to maintain the vaccines in their potent state up to the point of use. I have lost track of the number of assurances I have gotten from the government so you will have to forgive my lack of… lets call it enthusiasm. I mean hardly a week ago we had no idea what vaccine to get.

And now, boom, we might be the first African country to roll out a vaccination program, well, maybe we are the clinical trials, in our vaccine programme I didn’t see anything about any clinical trial phase to see if the vaccine will be effective here, I mean we don’t even know what sort of virus variants we have, maybe I missed the memo. Well, the vaccine will undergo a 48-hour rigorous testing before its shipped to vaccination centers according to an article in the Sunday paper .

There is not much information about this vaccine available and I wouldn’t blame anyone not keen on getting their shot, well anyway I am way down on the priority list of vaccines so I don’t have to think too much about it for now.

If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that the government has issued directives to boarding schools to cut down intake this year to allow for social distancing… wait, what?

Makes sense at first, then one starts thinking what happens to those who don’t get places in boarding schools.. end up having to go to a day school which would probably have an increased risk during commute to school, I would think boarding facilities would be the safest especially if they were to throw in testing before the term begins… but the government knows best. Their plan is to save lives first then save livelihoods.

Whats going on in your neck of the woods, have you got your shot yet or I shall pour you one ?

~B

Update: lockdown extended by another 2 weeks

PS I did say my birthday is a week from today right, you can buy me coffee for my lockdown birthday ^_^