Angola's President Lourenço, First Lady take COVID-19 vaccines

Angolan President João Lourenço delivers a speech at a past function. /VCG

Angola's President João Lourenço and First Lady Ana Dias Lourenço received their first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday as the country continues its mass vaccination drive.

The two received the Sputnik V jabs, joining a list of over 614,000 Angolans who have already received a first dose of their vaccines.

Other than the Sputnik V vaccine, Angola has also approved the use of the Chinese-manufactured Sinopharm vaccine and the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

The Southern African country rolled out its mass vaccination drive on March 3, having received 624,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

Later that month, the country also received a batch of over 200,000 Sinopharm vaccines donated by the Chinese government.

Health authorities say the country has so far obtained six million doses of the Sputinik V vaccine.

Following their vaccinations, President Lourenco and the First Lady called on all Angolans to purpose to receive the vaccines to bolster the country’s fight against the pandemic.

Angola has so far reported 29,695 COVID-19 infections with 649 deaths.