Zimbabwe steps up vaccine rollout as more vaccines arrive from China

HARARE, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe is accelerating its vaccine procurement and rollout program in hopes of achieving herd immunity before year-end.

On Thursday, the southern African country took delivery of another batch of Sinopharm vaccine doses.

The country has so far been mainly using two Chinese vaccines - Sinopharm and Sinovac - to inoculate its population.

The delivery of the latest consignment comes at a time when the country is registering record numbers of vaccines per day as more people rush to get their jabs to protect themselves against the pandemic.

On Tuesday, a record 104,974 vaccine shots were delivered in 24 hours, surpassing the set target of 100,000 daily doses.

A total of 1,348,374 people have so far been fully vaccinated while 2,193,346 have received at least one jab.

While infections are slowly receding, with average daily infection rates around a quarter of those recorded at the height of the third wave in mid-July, Zimbabwe is still battling new daily infections, prompting authorities to extend pandemic restrictive measures.

Since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in March last year, the country has recorded 121,498 positive cases and 4,181 deaths.