China is also actively participating in the World Health
Organisation (WHO)’s COVAX initiative to provide vaccines to developing
countries. As at February 1, Zimbabwe has reported 1 234 Covid-19 related
deaths and a total number of 33 548 cases.
Globally, the total number of Covid-19 deaths has exceeded
2,2 million. Posting on his official Twitter page, China’s Ambassador to
Zimbabwe, Guo Shaochun said his country will provide vaccines to 14 countries
including Zimbabwe.
“Zimbabwe will be one of the first 14 countries to receive
vaccine aid from China very soon,” he said.
Already, China has donated half a million doses of the
Sinopharm vaccine to Pakistan as the world economic giant lives to its
commitment of making Covid-19 vaccines, developed and deployed in China, a
global public good.
Other countries in line to receive shots from China include
the Philippines, Myanmar, Cambodia, Mongolia, the Palestinian territories,
Belarus, Sierra Leone and Equatorial Guinea, according to a Chinese Foreign
Affairs Ministry statement shared by Ambassador Guo.
In future, China plans to assist a further 38 developing
countries with vaccines, the statement said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged at the 73rd World
Health Assembly in November last year that China’s vaccines, once developed and
deployed, will be made a global public good and help to realise the
accessibility and affordability of Covid-19 vaccines in developing countries.
China is among the front-runners in vaccine research and
development (R&D) with one Chinese vaccine given conditional approval for
general public use and several others currently undergoing clinical trials of
various stages.
The cooperation between Zimbabwe and China reflects the
sincere mutual assistance between the two as all-weather strategic cooperative
partners.
President Mnangagwa last weekend assured the country that
no resource will be spared as the country intensifies efforts to procure the
vaccine, which would have been recommended by experts to be safe for
inoculation among Zimbabweans.
The country has a population of around 15 million and to
achieve herd immunity, which can be achieved when most of a population is
immune to an infectious disease, providing indirect protection to those who are
not immune to the disease, at least 10 million Zimbabweans should be
vaccinated. Chronicle
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