The government has purchased 3.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from China’s Sinopharm and Sinovac and the shots are set to be delivered from July through September this year.
The 2 million doses from Sinovac and 1.5 million from Sinopharm are expected to help the country’s economic recovery by allowing businesses to operate, Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube told Bloomberg by phone on Wednesday.
The order will add to a separate batch of 2 million vaccine doses that have been bought from Sinovac and will be delivered this week.
Speaking during a post-Cabinet media briefing in Harare Tuesday, Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said the government has put in place measures to procure more vaccines. She said:
Cabinet is pleased to report that measures have been put in place to increase the procurement of vaccines.
The following quantities of the COVID-19 vaccines have already been procured:
2 000 000 doses of Sinovac Vaccine by end of this week;
1 500 000 doses expected mid-July, 2021;
1 500 000 doses by August 2021; and\1 500 000 doses expected by September 2021.
Zimbabwe has so far received almost 3 million vaccine doses, including Sinopharm, Sinovac, Covaxin and Sputnik V.
By Tuesday 770 709 people had been given the first dose and 544 888 had received a second shot, according to Health Ministry data.
The government aims to vaccinate 10 million people out of its population of 15 million to achieve herd immunity.