China donates 600,000 Sinopharm covid vaccine to DRC, Egypt, Zimbabwe
London, Feb. 5, 2021 (AltAfrica)-China will provide three African countries with six hundred thousand (600,000 ) doses of its Sinopharm vaccination as more African countries join the global covid vaccination campaign
While Egypt is to receive 300,000 vaccines, China will donate 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Congo Republic and forgive $13 million in public debt
The third beneficiary, Zimbabwe will receive 200,000 free doses of China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on Thursday, after China and Russia offered shots against the coronavirus to the impoverished southern African nation.
“China will soon provide 300,000 doses – enough to vaccinate 150,000 people – of the Chinese vaccine. This comes under the the frame of deepening our friendship and bolstering cooperation between the two countries in facing the pandemic,” Liao Liqiang, the Chinese Ambassador to Egypt, announced on Twitter
ستمنح #الصين ل #مصر قريبا 300 ألف جرعة (تكفي ل١٥٠ ألف شخص) من #اللقاح المعطل الصيني لفيروس كورونا، وذلك يأتي في إطار تعميق الصداقة الثنائية التقليدية وتعزيز تعاون البلدين في مواجهة الجائحة، كما أنه يعتبر ممارسة حية لترجمة مفهوم #مجتمع_المصير_المشترك_الصحي للبشرية إلى واقع الأرض. pic.twitter.com/cn6zpgEvxe
— Liao Liqiang (@AmbLiaoLiqiang) February 4, 2021
The 100,000 doses are enough to vaccinate 50,000 of Congo’s 5.1 million people.
Congo, which has recorded 8,060 infections and 122 coronavirus-related deaths, has been allocated 420,000 doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine for the first half of this year under the global COVAX vaccine-sharing facility.
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In a nationally televised address, Zimbabwe president , Mnangagwa also said there were plans to vaccinate at least 60% of the population using government and private sector funding.
The coronavirus pandemic has increased rapidly in Zimbabwe over the past few weeks, with about 70% of its known 33,964 infections and more than two thirds of the 1,269 deaths recorded since the beginning of January
Egypt has started its vaccination campaign against coronavirus using the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine late January by inoculating hundreds of medical workers at quarantine hospitals.
The roll-out would see each person receiving two shots administered 21 days apart.
Minister of Health Hala Zayed said in a press conference on Wednesday that the ministry has concluded the vaccination of medical staff in 22 isolation hospitals nationwide.
The ministry began vaccinating health staff in 86 chest and fever hospitals nationwide as a second phase of the immunisation program, she added.
Egypt approved the emergency use of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine in early January, with priority of the vaccination program given to medical front-liners, patients suffering from chronic diseases and the elderly.
The first batch of vaccines consisting of 50,000 doses, which Egypt received in December, was tested by the Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA) to ensure its safety for use.
Egypt is looking at boosting and diversifying its supply of coronavirus vaccines to face the outbreak in the overpopulous country which many fear could overwhelm the country’s health system.
On 31 January, Egypt received the 50,000 doses as a first batch of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine from the British-Swedish company’s branch in India.
The batch, which consists of 50,000 doses, is part of a UPA’s agreement that includes 20 million doses of the British AstraZeneca’s vaccine – which is developed by India’s R-pharma and Serum Institute following their deal to transfer the vaccine manufacturing technology from the British company.
