As reported by TIMES OF ZAMBIA, Wednesday, February 9, 2022
MORE than 12,000 inmates have been vaccinated against Coronavirus (COVID-19) countrywide out of a total population of around 23,000.
Zambia Correctional Service COVID-19 national focal point person Liswaniso Muyendekwa said the cases in correctional services were not alarming. Mr Muyendekwa said during a Prison Fellowship of Zambia (PFZ) and Mary Begg hospital COVID-19 sensitisation programme for inmates at Kamfinsa that 2,838
inmates at Kamfinsa had been vaccinated with only 731 remaining. He said the intervention from stakeholders had contributed to high vaccination rates at the Kamfinsa Correctional facility.
He said no inmate had died from COVID-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic. “For Kamfinsa alone we only have about 731 who are not vaccinated, so we are seeing the impact of your intervention,” he said.
PFZ executive director Teddy Mweetwa said that the organisation had received more than K37,000 from Mary Begg hospital for COVID-19 programmes in correctional facilities.
Mr Mweetwa said the funds received were meant to heighten and help health personnel fight COVID-19 in correctional facilities in Lusaka, Southern and Copperbelt provinces. “We want to ensure that everybody receives the information and get vaccinated. We need to prevent COVID-19 deaths in prisons. If inmates are prevented then it means that they are safe because in the correctional facility there is no social distance,” he said.
Mary Begg Hospital public relations officer Monica Chanda said the aim was to ensure that health care service was made available for vulnerable people. Ms Chanda assured that the hospital could continue to supplement the Government efforts in providing quality health care service in prisons.
And Kamfinsa Officer Commanding Ivor Musumali said Kamfinsa had not recorded any COVID-19 since last year. He said more than 2,000 inmates at Kamfinsa had since been vaccinated representing a 76 per cent of the vaccination rate.
He commended medical personnel and stakeholders at the facility who worked hard to ensure that the
pandemic was controlled.