Zimbabwe Receives COVID-19 Vaccines from China Amid Fears of Third Wave

HARARE - Zimbabwe on Sunday received one million SINOVAC vaccines it bought from China as the African country battles to meet the demand for the COVID-19 jabs. Zimbabweans want to get vaccinated to beat a third wave facing the country.   

After the arrival of the doses from China on Sunday, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube told reporters that Zimbabwe had paid $92 million for 12 million jabs from China and from the COVAX – the United Nations’ vaccine-sharing initiative. “So, our vaccination program and vaccine acquisition program is going very well. For the first dose, we are already reaching about 50,000 vaccinations per day, which is good going indeed. So, all is going well. And we feel that we are well on our way of achieving that target of herd immunity which we need in order to open our economy safely so that the recovery is sustained and we can move from strength to strength with our objectives,” said Ncube.   In a virtual press conference this week Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Africa, said the continent was going through a third wave of COVID-19 infections and should urgently ramp up COVID-19 vaccination program.