Zimbabwe has received its first batch of the Sinopharm vaccine produced in China.

Zimbabwe’s authorities received 200 000 doses of the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine doses, which were donated by China, this morning.

This is the first batch of an initial 600 000 doses that are supposed to come from China.

The vaccines arrived in the country aboard an Air Zimbabwe charter flight early this morning.

Last week Government announced it had completed a vaccination rollout plan.

“The vaccine will immediately be distributed to all provinces and districts across the country,” the country’s health ministry said in a statement.

“The vaccination programme begins next week after the country takes delivery of the first batch of Covid-19 vaccines.”

The Beijing Institute of Biological Products created an inactivated coronavirus vaccine called BBIBP-CorV. Clinical trials run by the state-owned company Sinopharm showed that it had an efficacy rate of 79 percent.

Comparatively, the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are mRNA vaccines, that is, part of the coronavirus’ genetic code is injected into the body, triggering the body to begin making viral proteins, but not the whole virus, which is just adequate to capacitate one’s immune system to respond effectively if attacked by the coronavirus.