Home Health Get Booster Shots: Frontline Workers Told.

Get Booster Shots: Frontline Workers Told.

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The Midlands Provincial Medical Director in the Ministry of Health and Child Care Dr. Mary Muchekeza has urged frontline workers and other eligible groups to get the covid-19 booster shots saying this increases the number of antibodies that fight covid 19.

Speaking during the YAFM and Great Dyke TV covid-19 webinar today, Dr. Muchekeza said vaccination reduces chances of severe illness and death.

“As Midlands, we were targeting to have a vaccination coverage of 60 percent or more for us to acquire herd immunity, which means the proportion of the people in the community that are immune to a certain disease in order to stop the trajectory of transmission.

“There is lots of talk on social media that vaccines are not working, but preliminary information that is coming from studies in the region are already showing that the vaccination is the way to go.

“The message we want to send to our communities is that we want them to get vaccinated as much as possible with both the first and the second dose and moving on to the booster dose for high-risk people like health workers, the elderly, and those with other conditions.

“The message to our communities is that let’s get vaccinated. Why is it important to get vaccinated? They (vaccines) won’t stop you from getting the virus but the advantage is that you will be able to fight it and reduce chances of death,” she said.

She added that a number of health workers are being infected by the fourth wave hence the need to be vaccinated and get booster shots.

“Remember we have got our loved ones to protect, especially those with chronic illnesses, pregnant women, and everyone else whose immune system is weakened.

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“So if we get vaccinated we are not just doing it for ourselves but for the people that are around us. We are still far from the mark in terms of acquiring 70 percent coverage for the population of the Midlands province.

“We are having a lot of health workers getting infected these days and it means the number of people manning our facilities are significantly reduced.

“So we want to encourage people to get vaccinated and make sure that you get both doses and if you have a chance to get a second dose by all means do get it because it only makes you prepared and it increases the number of antibodies within your body to be able to fight and combat the infection.

“It is like a relay, if you get one dose and you don’t get the second dose then you are not optimized,” she added.

The webinar was running under the theme ‘Riding out the fourth wave’ following the pronouncements by the government that Zimbabwe has entered the fourth wave.

As at 15 December 2021, Zimbabwe had a cumulative 182 057 confirmed cases, including 130 920 recoveries and 4 759 deaths. To date, a total of 3 999 170 people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 with the first dose, while 3 013 385 have received the second dose.

A COVID booster shot is an additional dose of a vaccine given after the protection provided by the original shot(s) has begun to decrease over time. Typically, you would get a booster after the immunity from the initial dose(s) naturally starts to wane. The booster is designed to help people maintain their level of immunity for longer.

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