Ethiopia to get 300,000 Sinopharm Covid-19 shots

Ethiopia said it would receive 300,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses from China’s state-backed China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) on Tuesday.

The Sinopharm doses are the first shots Ethiopia has secured outside the global COVAX vaccine-sharing initiative, Health Minister Lia Tadesse said.

Ethiopia is struggling to administer shots and tame infections that have spiked.

In the past month, it has recorded a 26% increase in coronavirus infections and deaths rose by 18%, health ministry data shows.

On Thursday, the Africa CDC said Ethiopia had reported the highest number of new cases on the continent.

With a population of over 110 million, the Horn of Africa nation has recorded 200,563 infections and 2,801 deaths since its first case was announced in March last year.

Edited by Olajumoke Adeleke