China to donate two mln doses Sinovac vaccines to Botswana

GABORONE, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to Botswana Wang Xuefeng announced Saturday that China will donate two million doses of Sinovac vaccine to Botswana in 2022.

"We hope that this new batch of donations will further help the Botswana government with its national vaccination deployment plan, including the booster dosing schedule," Wang said in a video message posted on the Chinese Embassy's Facebook page.

The donation is part of China's commitment to provide an additional one billion doses of vaccines to Africa, according to Wang.

The announcement comes as the southern African country moves into Phase Four of its national vaccine deployment plan, which will cover those aged 12 to 17, as well as after the Botswana Medicines Regulatory Authority (BOMRA) approved the booster dosing plan.

Botswana has so far recorded 219,509 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 2,444 related deaths. At least 1,167,105 of Botswana's 1.6 million adults have received their first dose of the vaccine, with 1,032,584 fully vaccinated.