200k doses of Chinese COVID vaccine arrive in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe received on Monday its first delivery of China's COVID-19 vaccine, Sinopharm.

The plane carrying the vaccines arrived at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport.

The southern African country's first vaccines will be 200,000 doses of the vaccine donated by the Chinese government, while another 600,000 doses of the same vaccine have been purchased by the government and will arrive early next month, the state-run Sunday Mail reported.

Frontline workers such as health professionals and immigration agents working at borders will get first priority for the vaccines, according to a government rollout plan.

It was China's first shipments of vaccines to Africa, after deliveries to Egypt and Equatorial Guinea.

The 200,000 doses arriving from China are a far cry from the millions needed to administer jabs to the ten million people, or 60 percent of Zimbabwe's population, to achieve herd immunity.

The country, whose once robust public health system has deteriorated along with the economy over the past two decades, reported 35,104 cases, including 1,398 deaths, on Feb. 14, up from the slightly more than 10,000 cases and 277 deaths at the beginning of December.