HARARE, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe will soon receive 1.152 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine under the COVAX scheme, the European Union announced Wednesday.
"Fabulous to see that the #COVAX rollout has begun in Africa! #Zimbabwe will also very soon get 1.152 million doses under the COVAX scheme, to which #TeamEurope is the biggest contributor," the EU said on its Twitter handle.
COVAX is a global initiative led by the World Health Organization for better COVID-19 vaccine distribution. The facility plans to secure and distribute millions of doses of vaccines to developing countries.
As Zimbabwe awaits additional vaccines under COVAX, China on Wednesday announced that it will donate a second batch of 200,000 Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines to Zimbabwe.
This will increase China's donation of the vaccines to Zimbabwe to 400,000.
On its part, the Zimbabwean government has purchased 600,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses from China, which are expected to arrive in the country in March.
The country is also in advanced negotiations to acquire the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia, while India has announced that it will donate 75,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to Zimbabwe.
Last Thursday, the Zimbabwean government launched its COVID-19 vaccination program, three days after taking delivery of the first batch of the 200,000 vaccine doses from China.
Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, who is also Health and Child Care Minister, became the first citizen to receive the Sinopharm jab.
Frontline workers, including journalists, are being prioritized for inoculation under the first phase of the vaccination program. Vaccination is being done on a voluntary basis and in three phases.
The government aims to inoculate at least 10 million out of the country's population of 16 million people to achieve herd immunity.
As of Tuesday, Zimbabwe had recorded 35,910 COVID-19 cases, with 32,288 recoveries and 1,448 deaths. Enditem
