Chinese vaccines help boost global optimism

Hun Manet, a son of Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen, receives a shot of the COVID-19 vaccine at Calmette hospital in Phnom Penh on Wednesday. [Photo/Agencies]

Chinese vaccines are bolstering optimism around the world while garnering a sterling reputation for their reliability as they become vital to the launch of vaccination programs from Europe to Latin America to Southeast Asia.

Hungary is set to receive its first shipment of Sinopharm doses by the end of the month, the British Daily Mail reported on Saturday.

The country, the first in the European Union to approve a Chinese vaccine, has ordered enough supplies from China's Sinopharm to inoculate 2.5 million people.

The move came after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban criticized the bloc's jab rollout for "progressing slowly."

As an EU candidate, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday the country expects to take one of the leading positions in Europe when it comes to the rate of vaccination against the coronavirus, thanks mostly to Chinese and Russian vaccines.

Vucic announced the arrival of an additional 500,000 doses of Chinese Sinopharm vaccines.

The initial shipment in mid-January of a million Chinese vaccines has given Serbia a jump-start in the vaccination rollout in the Balkans and beyond.

"I am proud to say that this will ensure that Serbia takes the first or second position in Europe regarding the number of vaccinated people," said Vucic.

Republika Srpska, or RS, one of the two entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, has also ordered vaccines from Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinopharm, Minister of Health and Social Welfare of RS Alen Seranic said on Monday.

"Based on other countries' experiences where Chinese vaccine is already approved, we decided that we also need to acquire a certain number of vaccines from China," said Seranic.

For Latin American countries like Brazil, Chile and Peru, Chinese vaccines provided them a much-needed shot in the arm at a critical moment when a second wave of coronavirus outbreaks has ravaged the region.

Peru launched the first stage of its national vaccination campaign on Tuesday, using vaccines developed by Sinopharm to immunize healthcare workers.

The head of Intensive Care and Intermediate Care Service at the Arzobispo Loayza Hospital in Lima, Josef Vallejos Acevedo, said he was very pleased to have been among the first group of doctors to receive the vaccine at the institution.

"Very pleased, knowing that it marks a historic day in Peruvian medicine, especially in this preventive part in the fight against this disease that has hit us so hard," the specialist said.