Zimbabwe receives initial 200,000 vaccine doses from China

Zimbabwe has received its first batch of 200,000 doses of Sinopharm donated by the Chinese government in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

The southern African country received its first delivery of 200,000 doses of the vaccines on Monday at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in the capital city Harare.

The Chinese coronavirus vaccine was donated by the East Asian nation’s government while another batch of 600,000 doses purchased by Zimbabwe is expected to arrive early next month.

This shipment from China comes after prior vaccine dose deliveries to Egypt and Equatorial Guinea.

Vaccination priority will be given to frontline workers such as health professionals and immigration agents working at borders, according to the rollout plan in Zimbabwe — which has as of Sunday, reported 35,104 COVID-19 cases and almost 1,398 deaths.

Many more doses beyond this first batch of 200,000 will be necessary to achieve herd immunity in Zimbabwe as 60% of its population, i.e. 10 million people would need to vaccinated.