The number of people in Zimbabwe opting to have the Covid vaccine has suffered a steep drop over the past week, as per new weekly figures, fuelling concerns of a fourth wave of the virus.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa reopened Zimbabwe’s economy two weeks ago, relaxing the nationwide lockdown to level two from level four, extending business hours and permitting intercity travel following a decline in Covid cases and fatalities.

However, health experts said Zimbabweans had become complacent as the number of infections declines, ignoring Covid protocols.

Since the vaccine rollout got underway in February this year, around 15.6% of the population – 2,312 million people – had received both doses of the vaccine by 3 October.

As of last Sunday, 3,111,885 people had received their first dose, with Zimbabwe aiming to vaccinate around 10 million people – 60% of the population – by the end of the year to reach herd immunity.

Covid-19 national taskforce chief co-ordinator Agnes Mahomva is blaming Zimbabweans’ complacency for the fall in vaccine uptake.

"We will never give up working towards achieving our ambitious target of vaccinating 60% of our population by year end. It is, however, determined by a number of factors such as the willingness of the public to take the vaccine," she said.

"As long as the public is not willing to get vaccinated, then we will not reach the number we are targeting. The other issue is that reaching herd immunity depends on the availability of the vaccines. However, government remains committed to ensuring that it avails vaccine doses at any given time so that people get vaccinated."

Community Working Group on Health executive director Itai Rusike added that the declining vaccination numbers was a result of poor strategic planning.

"The current vaccination strategy lacks focus on people and the community.

"The issue of misinformation and lack of trust in the community with respect to COVID-19 vaccines and even the pandemic itself needs to be tackled by carrying out a sustained Covid-19 health literacy at the community level to dispel myths about vaccines so that we can increase vaccine uptake by building community confidence and acceptance,” he added.

Zimbabwe was named among the 15 African countries that have reached the World Health Organisation’s target to fully vaccinate 10% of their populations by September 2021.