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Zimbabwe Extends Begging Bowl for COVID Vaccines Funding Amid Surge in
COVID19 Cases

Columbus Mavhunga

   HARARE, ZIMABABWE - Zimbabwe's government is asking for help from the
   country's corporate sector, citizens and other well-wishers to fund the
   import of COVID-19 vaccines. The southern African nation is falling
   behind in the battle with the coronavirus, despite imposing a 12-hour
   curfew last month as part of a lockdown to deal with the pandemic,
   which has infected about 35,000 people in Zimbabwe and caused 1,300
   deaths, most of them this year alone.

   Itai Rusike, executive director of the nonprofit Community Working
   Group on Health in Zimbabwe said in an interview he was shocked by the
   extension of the "usual begging bowl" when President Emmerson
   Mnangagwa's government has been lately "bragging of a surplus budget."
   He said citizens and companies in Zimbabwe are feeling the impact of
   the slowed economy, so they cannot donate for COVID-19 vaccine imports.

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