Mozambique receives 1 mln doses of COVID-19 vaccine from China

MAPUTO, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Mozambique has received one million doses of the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine purchased from China, the largest batch the country has ever got.

This is the first batch of a total of 11 million doses the country expects to acquire by the end of August, Deputy Minister of Health Lidia Cardoso said on Tuesday.

The country now has received a total of 1,704,400 doses of vaccines, Cardoso said.

"In the next few days, we will start vaccinating a greater number of people, a fact that will accelerate the immunization of more Mozambicans in a short period of time," she added.

Cardoso also mentioned that the country hopes to acquire more vaccines to expand vaccination to other priority groups, included in the phases III and IV of the national vaccination campaign.

Mozambique plans to vaccinate around 17 million people, and currently only less than 3 percent of the targeted population has been covered in the process.