Zimbabwe took delivery of 700 000 doses of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday night, 24 hours after 800 000 doses from the same supplier were delivered.
The consignment took the total deliveries to 6,76 million various jabs and allowing the accelerated vaccination programme to continue at a high level.
The vaccines, which were delivered by an Ethiopian Airways plane at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, were received by the Local Government and Public Works Deputy Minister Marian Chombo on behalf of the Government.
Chombo was accompanied by chief director Curative Services in the Ministry of Health and Child Care Dr Maxwell Hove and other senior Government officials. She said:
We meet again today; the Government has purchased 1,5 million Sinopharm vaccines of which yesterday we received the first batch of 800 000 vaccines, and today we have just received the last batch of 700 000 from China.
All this was procured by the Government of Zimbabwe with the initiative of our visionary leader President Mnangagwa.
We are also urging the private sector to help us with this initiative. Our motto is to leave no one behind.
We have to go down to the grassroots to reach everyone.
Chombo also reminded people to continue adhering to prescribed COVID-19 containment measures.
On his part, Hove urged Zimbabweans to be vaccinated saying this would save the country from forming new variants in communities which might present authorities with another challenge.