By ACorrespondent- The Deputy Minister For Health and Child Care Dr. Jonh Mangwiro has said people living with HIV, people living with chronic conditions must take the vaccine because it will protect them from the novel coronavirus.

Dr. Mangwiro was addressing parliamentarians when he told the parliamentarians that contrary to reports that the vaccine was not supposed to be taken by the people with chronic conditions, they were the people who are supposed to take the vaccine.

Said Dr. Mangwiro:

People with cancer, HIV, diabetes mellitus and hypertension have weakened immunities. We have no policy to say that they are not going to be vaccinated. Actually, these people need the vaccine much more because they need to be protected.

These are the people we are saying, those with underlying conditions and the elderly. We are targeting people who we know have weak immunities. The elderly have their weak immunity due to age, their marrow, reaction and production of antibodies is much slower now.

So those people with those underlying conditions must get the vaccine so that they can fight the disease/virus better when they get it because their antibodies will have been enhanced from the vaccine. We cannot discriminate and it is not correct to say that they are not going to be vaccinated

Any medicine or drug for that matter if it is given to a human being, might have side effects, but from the studies that have been done so far by the people who produce the vaccine, there seems to be very minimal reaction. People might react. We are ready to manage the side effects and it is very possible that it will not be very severe, it is something that we can take control of.

Meanwhile, manufacturers of the vaccine are reportedly arm twisting the Zimbabwean government into buying their vaccines according to sources from the Finance mini