BY MOSES MATENGA/VANNESA GONYE/BLESSED MHLANGA GOVERNMENT yesterday warned citizens to brace for more movement restrictions in light of the highly fatal and fast-spreading South African variant of the COVID-19 virus, which now constitutes 61% of new infections in the country. This has raised questions about the safety of the Chinese-donated Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine set to be rolled out in the country starting tomorrow. In a post-Cabinet Press statement yesterday, government said security checks would be further intensified throughout the country in order to enforce compliance with the prescribed lockdown measures. “Cabinet wishes to inform the nation that results of the genomic sequencing recently conducted indicate that the type of COVID-19 virus that the nation had in 2020 has receded. There is now a 61% dominance of the new South African variant of the COVID-19 virus, which spreads faster and has a higher fatality rate,” the statement read. “Accordingly, the nation now needs to be more vigilant than before and adhere to COVID-19 prevention and control measures. Security personnel have, therefore, been directed to intensify monitoring and enforcement in order to enhance compliance.” Government said the inoculation of critical staff using the Sinopharm vaccine donated by the Chinese government would commence tomorrow and would be voluntary and free. “The aim of the first phase is to vaccinate 22%, 18,4% under phase two; and 18,4% under phase three, thereby yielding a vaccinated population of nearly 60% of the population,” the Cabinet statement read. But health practitioners, teachers, and trade unionists yesterday said they feared being used as guinea pigs to prove the efficacy of the vaccine amid reports that it had caused health complications in some countries where it has been rolled out. Government says it is prioritising healthcare workers, border and airport security staff, State security staff and Agritex officials under its first inoculation phase, with the elderly — 60 years and above, the chronically ill, prisoners and refugees to be covered during the second phase. Teachers, lecturers, college and school workers are also on the government priority list, with the rest of the population considered low risk coming last. Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights secretary Norman Matara said it was a welcome move to prioritise health workers, adding that there was growing concern over lack of information on the vaccine that could lead to low uptake of the voluntary programme. “As health workers and other frontline workers all over the world, we need to get vaccinated because we have a big challenge and are at risk,” he said. “There is an area of concern which is giving us problems. There is no effective communication plan from the government and that is leaving a lot of room for fears to be talked about and that the acceptance of the vaccines may actually be very low.” Zimbabwe Nurses Association president Enock Dongo challenged government to address the fears expressed by healthcare workers. “The rea