BY MIRIAM MANGWAYA/HARRIET CHIKANDIWA PRESIDENTIAL spokesperson George Charamba says Zimbabwe could consider mandatory inoculation against COVID-19 following resistance from some sections of the population. Zimbabwe rolled out the voluntary vaccination programme throughout the country this week, with health workers and other frontline workers given the first priority. Vice-President and Health minister Constantino Chiwenga last Thursday became the first Zimbabwean to be inoculated with the Chinese-donated Sinopharm vaccine. The southern African country last Monday received 200 000 doses of the vaccine and Charamba yesterday said the Asian giant had doubled its donation to 400 000 doses. According to Finance minister Mthuli Ncube, Zimbabwe expects to receive another 600 000 doses of the same vaccine early next month purchased by government. Government said it had planned to buy up to 1,8 million doses of the Chinese vaccine. However, there has been a low turnout by health workers at most health centres throughout the country, with some saying they were unsure of the efficacy of the donated vaccine. Charamba posted on his @Jamwanda2 Twitter handle that if persuasion failed on voluntary vaccination, then government, which has maintained that the programme would be voluntary, according to the Public Health Act, would force people to be vaccinated. “Generally, government takes the view of persuasion as a weapon of first instance. Only when that fails does it ratchet up pressure through coercion, especially where minors are involved. You can’t condemn an age that can’t decide to die or take hazards of dying,” Charamba tweeted on Tuesday. Charamba could not be reached for comment yesterday to clarify his remarks. But human rights doctors said government risked contravening section 52 the Constitution on health rights if it orders compulsory vaccination. They said citizens lacked adequate information to make informed decisions on whether to be vaccinated or not. Responding to Charamba, a human rights doctor, Shingai Feresu, said an order for compulsory vaccination was a violation of human rights. “Let me be clear here,” he tweeted yesterday. “I don’t see the rationale of compulsory vaccination. As a human rights advocate, this would be a violation of the highest degree. Only when the situation is dire (do) you invoke the Public Health Act. With deaths around 10 per day for a population of 15 million, you can’t invoke it.” Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZiNA) president Enock Dongo said the general assessment showed that there was low uptake of the vaccine among nurses throughout the country as at yesterday. “Health workers lack the necessary information,” he said. “There are several conspiracy theories against vaccines on social media and health workers are also consumers of that information, hence factual information was essential to dismiss misleading information. “Government failed to avail the necessary information to the frontline workers and the public prior the commencement of the inoculation process. Government does not