Zambia to start administering China's COVID-19 Sinopharm vaccine

LUSAKA, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- Zambia will soon start rolling out the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine received from China early this month, a government official said on Wednesday.

Kennedy Malama, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health in charge of Technical Services said the vaccine will be rolled out in specific districts this week to supplement the other vaccines being administered.

"We are happy to report that we remain commodity secure as far as vaccines are concerned and will continue to acquire additional doses. Vaccination against COVID-19 remains a high impact intervention as it protects one from hospitalization, severe disease and death," he said in a statement on the COVID-19 situation.

He urged members of the public to get vaccinated as the country anticipates the fourth wave of the pandemic at the end of this year and early next year.

The country has been administering the AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson vaccine since the launch of the program on April 14, 2021 out of the five approved vaccines for the country.

The official said so far about 558,307 doses out of the 977,600 received have been utilized.

Meanwhile, the official said the government will soon issue guidelines with regards to various restrictions imposed to curtail the spread of the pandemic following reductions in new cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

The country's cumulative cases currently stand at 205,107 following 130 new cases reported in the last 24 hours.