Another batch of China-donated COVID-19 vaccines arrive in Myanmar

YANGON, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- One million doses of COVID-19 vaccines donated by China arrived in Yangon Wednesday and another 1 million doses are expected to be delivered Thursday, according to the Chinese Embassy in Myanmar.

Myanmar has been administering COVID-19 vaccine shots to middle and high school students aged over 12 years since Tuesday in an effort to cut the spread of COVID-19 infections.

According to a statement from the Ministry of Health, over 4.2 million people have been fully vaccinated nationwide, while over 6.38 million people have received the first jab of COVID-19 vaccines as of Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 cases in Myanmar has increased to 482,803 on Wednesday after 1,573 new cases were reported in the past 24 hours, the ministry said.

Some 34 new deaths were recorded, bringing the death toll to 18,222 in the country as of Wednesday.

According to the ministry's figures, a total of 435,361 patients have been discharged from hospitals and over 4.55 million samples have been tested for COVID-19 so far.

Myanmar detected its first two COVID-19 cases on March 23 last year.