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China is to send 150,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine to Syria as aid, the Chinese embassy in Damascus has said, Reuters reports.
Syrian health officials have said the country is engaged with Russia and China over vaccines but authorities have not yet announced any bilateral deals.
Medicines are generally exempt from the international financial sanctions Syria is under, but UN sources have said sanctions have left Damascus without much financial clout to negotiate deliveries.
Sixteen African countries have shown interest in securing Covid-19 vaccines under an African Union (AU) plan, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said, according to Reuters.
While many rich nations have already begun mass vaccination drives, only a few African countries have started vaccination, and the 55-member African Union hopes to see 60% of the continent’s 1.3 billion people immunised in the next three years.
The AU has so far secured around 670m doses for its member states.
Africa’s CDC director, John Nkengasong, said the 16 countries had asked for a total of 114m doses under the AU’s Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT), which began work in mid-January.
Read the original article at The Guardian