By Staff Reporter
A government delegation led by Minister of Health and Child Care Minister, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga today received the first batch of 200 000 Sinopharm vaccine from China.
The vaccine arrived during the early morning hours at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in Harare.
Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Guo Shaochum, officially handed over the 200.000 Sinopharm doses.
The next procurement of 600.000 jabs from the same Chinese pharmacentical giant (Sinopharm) are expected next month.
Speaking at the handover ceremony, Vice President Chiwenga expressed gratitude to the Chinese government for the generous donation.
“On behalf of his excellence, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the government of Zimbabwe and indeed on my own behalf, we would like to thank the Chinese government for this timely donation on the much need Covid-19 vaccine,” he said.
Chiwenga also added that the vaccine will see Zimbabwe possibly returning to normalcy.
This comes after the country has been in almost a year long lockdown to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This has negatively affected the already deteriorating economy.
Also present at the handover ceremony was Finance Minister, Mthuli Ncube who revealed that the gesture has kickstarted a new programme that will continue until the government reach a target of 1.8 million doses to be acquired from China.
Furthermore, Ncube stressed that the government will carry on with the programme of acquiring doses till a population of at least 10million people has been vaccinated.
He also indicated that the continued activity will help achieve herd immunity.
As of the 13th of February, there were 35 104 confirmed cases in Zimbabwe, with 30 089 recoveries, whilst 1 398 deaths were recorded.
A number of 3 616 Covid-19 cases were confirmed to be active cases and only 101 were said to be hospitalized.
