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China has provided COVID-19 vaccine aid or exported vaccines to dozens of countries, honoring its commitment to make vaccines a "global public good."
China is a frontrunner in promoting international vaccine cooperation and a steadfast advocate of equitable vaccine distribution, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Sunday.
"China will continue to promote international cooperation to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 and develop friendly ties with all nations," he added.
Chinese vaccines have arrived in many countries. The following are some of the countries that have received Chinese COVID-19 vaccines in the past week.
Zimbabwe authorizes Sinovac, Sinopharm vaccines for emergency use
Zimbabwe has authorized the emergency use of four COVID-19 vaccines, including China's Sinovac and Sinopharm, Russia's Sputnik V and India's Covaxin, Zimbabwean Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said in a post-Cabinet briefing on Tuesday.
The southern African country last month rolled out its COVID-19 vaccination program after receiving a donation of 200,000 doses of shots from China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm).
Workers offload boxes as the country's first batch of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines arrives from China, in Harare, Zimbabwe, February 15, 2021. /Reuters
Zimbabwe said it plans to vaccinate more than 9 million people and is waiting for delivery of 600,000 Sinopharm doses that it purchased from China.
More than 35,000 people have been vaccinated in Zimbabwe, where 36,321 coronavirus infections and 1,489 deaths have been recorded in its population of about 15 million.
Mexico leans on China after U.S. rules out jab sharing in short term
Mexico is turning to China to fill a vaccine shortfall with an order for 22 million doses, its Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Tuesday, a week after U.S. President Joe Biden ruled out sharing vaccines with Mexico in the short term.
Mexico's vaccine rollout has been criticized as overly slow, though officials say they've been hampered by delays in receiving vaccines amid global shortages.
Ebrard said Mexico has placed an order for an additional 10 million doses of China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine to be delivered between May and July, on top of the 10 million already ordered, which are due to arrive between March and May.
Mexico will also order 12 million vaccine doses made by China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) once it has been approved by its health regulator, Ebrard added.
Ukraine approves China's Sinovac COVID-19 jabs
Ukrainian pharmaceutical company Lekhim, one of Sinovac's partners, has an agreement with the manufacturer to deliver 5 million doses of the vaccine in Ukraine. /Xinhua
Ukraine's health ministry said on Tuesday that it has approved the COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac.
Ukrainian pharmaceutical company Lekhim – one of Sinovac's partners – has an agreement with the manufacturer to deliver 5 million doses of the vaccine in Ukraine, including 1.9 million via a state procurement scheme.
Ukraine started COVID-19 vaccinations in late February but only 19,118 first shots had been given by March 9. Its Health Minister Maksym Stepanov earlier on Tuesday urged regional authorities to speed up inoculations, voicing concern over the appearance of the variant first identified in the United Kingdom.
Ukraine has reported more than 1.4 million coronavirus infections with 27,204 deaths as of Tuesday.
Second batch of Chinese vaccines arrives in Colombia
Colombia's President Ivan Duque speaks during the arrival of Chinese Sinovac vaccine doses amid the pandemic in Bogota, Colombia, February 20, 2021. /Xinhua
A new shipment of China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines arrived at El Dorado Airport on Saturday in Colombia with more to arrive on Sunday, Colombian President Ivan Duque announced on social media.
The doses will reinforce Colombia's National Vaccination Plan as the country strives to reach the goal of immunizing more than 70 percent of Colombians against the virus, the president tweeted.
Third batch of China's COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Serbia
Serbia on Friday received the third shipment of COVID-19 vaccines from China, President Aleksandar Vucic has said.
Vucic welcomed the shipment at the Belgrade Airport on Friday evening and posted a video on social media, in which he expressed gratitude to China and urged citizens to take part in the vaccination campaign.
The first and second batches of Chinese COVID-19 vaccines reached Serbia on January 16 and February 10 respectively. On January 19, Serbia started its national vaccination campaign to rein in the spread of the novel coronavirus.
As of Friday, Serbia has confirmed 478,878 COVID-19 cases, while 4,525 patients have died of the disease.
Guinea launches COVID-19 vaccination rollout with Chinese vaccines
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The Republic of Guinea began its COVID-19 vaccination rollout on Friday local time in capital Conakry, two days after a batch of China-donated COVID-19 vaccines arrived in the country.
Minister of Health Remy Lamah and Director General of the National Health Security Agency Sakoba Keita attended the launch ceremony on the same day.
Lamah said Guinean medical staff, people in key positions, religious practitioners and elderly people over 65 will be among the first in line for vaccination.
Keita pointed out that the COVID-19 vaccines produced in China have made an important contribution to containing the epidemic, and Guinea has full confidence in the efficacy of the Chinese vaccine.
China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine obtains marketing authorization in Tunisia
The Tunisian Ministry of Health announced Thursday that the Chinese Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine has been officially approved for marketing in Tunisia.
"The promotion license was granted after evaluating the file submitted by the Chinese laboratory by the National Laboratory for the Control of Medicines and National Center for Pharmacovigilance with the contribution of other experts in the fields of virology, toxicology, immunology and infectious diseases in Tunisia," according to a ministry statement.
"This arrangement will allow the acceleration of the process of acquiring the vaccine," it read.
Turkish university says China's Sinovac vaccine 83.5 percent effective
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A COVID-19 vaccine made by Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech has an efficacy of 83.5 percent based on third-phase trials in Turkey, a Turkish university announced last Wednesday at a press conference.
The results were based on 10,216 participants aged 18-59, 3,568 of whom had received a placebo as part of the trials that began in mid-September, said Serhat Unal, a medical faculty member of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology at Ankara-based Hacettepe University and a member of Turkey's Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board.
Murat Akova, another physician at the university, said that 32 volunteers from the placebo group and nine from the vaccine group were infected with the virus at least 14 days after they received their second doses.
"The vaccine prevents the symptomatic disease by 83.5 percent," Akova said, adding it was 100 percent in preventing hospitalization, and no death during the trial period.
Montenegro receives first batch of donated COVID-19 vaccines from China
The first batch of Sinopharm vaccines donated by China arrived in Montenegro last Wednesday and was welcomed by Montenegrin Health Minister Jelena Borovinic Bojovic and Chinese Ambassador to Montenegro Liu Jin.
On behalf of Montenegrin Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic and his government, Bojovic thanked Chinese leaders and Chinese people at the handover ceremony, calling the donation "another proof of the friendship and solidarity between the two countries and two peoples."
Krivokapic last Wednesday tweeted on the arrival of the Chinese vaccines, saying that his country is "continuing with the procurement of vaccines and immunization of our population."
Montenegro is among the first countries in Europe to receive vaccine donation from China, which "embodies the good wishes of the Chinese people and the traditional friendship between the two countries," Ambassador Liu said in his speech.
