As the country  battles with the third wave  of the Delta variant, church leaders  have decided to take the lead in the vaccination drive.

Scores of church leaders across the country have started to mobilise themselves  to vaccinate  against the Covid virus.

Vaccine hesitancy  and lack of uptake has been attributed to  hesitancy by church leaders who either have said something against the COVID-19 vaccine or not taken it.

Therefore the exercise by church leaders to get vaccinated will have a ripple effect of    encouraging thousands of Christians to  go and vaccinate.

In Masvingo, a group  Pastors organized themselves through the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance hub and received their COVID-19 jab .

Their effort was noticed by the  Ministry of Information Permanent Secretary Nick Mangwana who tweeted thanking the efforts being taken by Pastors.

“We appreciate the great example set by members of the Christian Alliance in Masvingo today. The Religious Leaders led members of their flock for vaccination and they patiently waited for their turn. Praying is well and good but leading by example is better. James2: 14-26.” Said Mangwana.

As the Delta variant  ravages through the country,  there is massive mobilisation of church leaders to take the lead in the vaccination process

This week, the ZCA organized pastors who received their jab at Ekusileni Hospital in Bulawayo. As of this week, 59 pastors were vaccinated under this scheme organized by ZCA.

Pastors are core members of the society, who lead in so many ways and ceremonies such as funerals and other important gatherings. The importance of vaccinating them cannot be over-emphasized as Pastor KT Mpofu said.

Pastor KT Mpofu, who is a programs officer at the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance reiterated the importance of vaccinating Christian leaders,   since the vaccine will protect them in executing their ministry related duties .

“In essence, pastors are frontline workers in our society and as a result, this special arrangement will help them against COVID-19 as they do their work in ministry. It should be understood though that this vaccination is voluntary. ” said Pastor Mpofu.

The major concerns in the Christian cycles are conspiracy theories that spread faster than the correct information as said by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Ministry of Health and Child care (MoHCC) in Zimbabwe. Some people still believe that the jab could be the mark of the beast or the 666 symbol as pointed in the book of Revelation 13 verse 18.