Zambia finalizes modalities for acquisition of China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine

LUSAKA, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Zambia has finalized all administrative processes and requisite payment for shipment of China's Sinopharm vaccines to be part of the country's vaccination program, a government official said on Saturday.

Kennedy Malama, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health in charge of Technical Services said 100,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines were expected to arrive in the country in the next two weeks.

He said in a COVID-19 update that the government has also finalized the legal processes for the acquisition of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine and will now be making the requisite payments.

The government, he said, will continue to acquire additional consignments of the approved vaccines in line with the approved basket of vaccines.

Zambia has approved five vaccines as part of its vaccination program. The program was being done in a phased manner. The vaccination program was launched on April 14, 2021 under the first phase of the AstraZeneca vaccine while the second dose of the same vaccine commenced on June 23.

Meanwhile, the country recorded 2,816 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours out of 10,918 tests done. This brings the cumulative cases to 146,031 while 52 people died, bringing the total deaths to 1,967.

A total of 2,554 patients were discharged during the same period, bringing the total recoveries to 121,965.