Officials say China has pledged 400,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine, a boost to Afghanistan’s vaccine campaign.
China has pledged to deliver 400,000 doses of COVID-19 Sinopharm vaccine to Afghanistan, Afghanistan officials said, in a boost for the country’s vaccination campaign, which began last week.
“China’s ambassador to Kabul in a meeting with health officials said his country would give Afghanistan 400,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine,” Ghulam Dastagir Nazari, head of the health program’s health ministry, told Reuters news agency Monday.
Sinopharm China vaccine has been approved by the World Health Organization, but it is unclear when it will be delivered, Nazari said.
To date, just over 12,000 health workers have been vaccinated in the 34 districts of Afghanistan, he said.
Vaccination of members of the security forces has also begun, according to another official, to speak on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Afghan government forces have opposed intense attacks, blaming the Taliban militant group since September, when the two sides entered peace talks that broke the U.S. with Qatar.
The Taliban has largely denied responsibility for the level of violence. The group has also said it supports the vaccination campaign.
Afghanistan has already received 500,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from India, which allowed them to launch their vaccine campaign last Tuesday.
Afghan health officials have said the international COVAX program, which targets access to COVID vaccines for developing countries, would provide vaccines to cover 20 percent of the country’s population of 38 million.
Afghanistan has recorded 55,733 diseases and 2,444 deaths from COVID. But experts say cases are under-reported due to low testing and limited access to medical facilities in the war-torn country.