Morocco, Zimbabwe receive 1.3m Chinese vaccines as more African countries join covid-19 vaccination drive
London, Feb. 16, 2021 (AltAfrica)-Morocco and Zimbabwe are taken delivery of Covid-19 vaccines as vaccination takes off fully and progressing well Across African countries
Zimbabwe is the latest to join the fray as President Emmerson Mnangagwa received his country’s first batch of COVID-19 vaccines on Monday
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The first batch of vaccines for Zimbabwe has been successfully delivered. We start vaccinating Zimbabweans this week!
— President of Zimbabwe (@edmnangagwa) February 15, 2021
The faster our country is protected against this virus, the faster Zimbabwe’s economy can flourish.
God bless you all, god bless Zimbabwe! 🇿🇼 pic.twitter.com/u2noXMWcnR
Rwanda began vaccinating high-risk groups such as frontline healthcare workers with a limited number of Covid jabs, the health ministry announced on Sunday joining Egypt, Algeria, Morocco Guinea, Seychelles among others
On Tuesday, Morocco is set to receive additional 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine, Le360 reported, citing a source from the Ministry of Health.
Morocco and Zimbabwe are receiving 1.3 million doses of Sinopharm Vaccines from China. 500,000 for Morocco and 800,000 for Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe President, on Monday, shared photos of a cargo plane with COVID-19 vaccines while making the announcement via his official Twitter handle.
He also announced the country will start COVID-19 vaccination this week.
“The first batch of vaccines for Zimbabwe has been successfully delivered. We start vaccinating Zimbabweans this week!
“The faster our country is protected against this virus, the faster Zimbabwe’s economy can flourish,” Mnangagwa tweeted.
Zimbabwe Health Ministry had earlier on Friday said it expects to take delivery of the first shipment of 800,000 vaccine doses, 200,000 of which were donated by the Chinese government.
“The vaccination programme begins next week after the country takes delivery of the first batch of Covid-19 vaccines,” it added.
The vaccines will be first distributed to 10 provincial storage facilities, then to 1,800 clinics, it said, adding that there was adequate cold chain equipment to keep the vaccines “in their potent state up to the point of use”.
Frontline workers deemed most at risk of infection have been lined up to receive the first shots.
The government aims to vaccinate 10 million of its over 14.5 million population to achieve community immunity.
For Morocco, the latest shipment would be the second batch of Sinopharm vaccines for the North African country
A similar shipment of 500,000 doses arrived Morocco on January 26, a few days before the launch of Morocco’s vaccination campaign.
Morocco is using both the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine and the British-Swedish Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in its national vaccination campaign against COVID-19.
In addition to the 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine it received in January, Morocco received six millions doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine — two million doses in late January and four million doses on February 19.
