Zimbabwe on Thursday collected 2 million doses of Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines from China, its biggest batch yet since the country first received a donation of 200,000 doses that kicked off the country's vaccination program in February, with another 1.5 million doses due to arrive from China next week. 

The vaccines came at an opportune time to boost the country's vaccination roll out program, marked by a swelling demand for vaccination. 

Speaking soon after receiving the vaccines at the Robert Mugabe International Airport, Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube said the new vaccines would allow the government to conduct a blitz vaccination program. 

"I'm very pleased that we have received another consignment of doses of vaccines this afternoon of the Sinovac variety, as we had promised last week. We can now really go full throttle on the vaccination program being rolled out by government," he said.  

"The vaccination program is not just about saving lives, it is also about saving the economy, because when citizens have been vaccinated it is easier for government to open all aspects of the economy, so it is also about economic recovery."

Ncube said another 1.5 million doses will arrive next Thursday from China and the government had decided to buy another 2 million doses at the end of July. 

Pending the arrival of the 2 million doses, Zimbabwe had taken delivery of 4.2 million doses of vaccines through donations and purchases, the bulk of them from China. 

Slightly over 800,000 people have been vaccinated against Covid-19 in Zimbabwe. The pandemic has infected more than 60,000 people and claimed the lives of nearly 2,000 people.  

A study to assess the effectiveness of the Sinovac vaccine, published by the New England Journal of Medicine on July 7, has concluded that the World Health Organization-approved vaccine, the mainstay of Chile's vaccination strategy, provides an effective shield against COVID-19, including severe disease. The study was funded by Chile's National Research and Development Agency. It was conducted from Feb 2 through May 1 this year and the study group included approximately 10.2 million people.