China will be providing additional 80,000 doses of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine and 80,000 disposal syringes to Vanuatu.
Minister of Health, Silas Bule, said China will be supplying the extra vaccine stock following a request from the Vanuatu Government.
Negotiations are underway for a flight to bring the vaccine and syringes from China via Auckland in New Zealand early next month, said Minister Bule according to a Vanuatu Daily Post report.
Vanuatu received its first 20,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine and 22,400 syringes from China in July this year, one month after the Sinopharm vaccine was listed for emergency use by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Minister Bule said the Council of Ministers (COM) in its latest meeting has also approved for further 20,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from Japanese Aid.
Japan will be providing these doses through the COVAX Facility, he added.
In July this year, the Ambassador of Japan to Vanuatu, Chiba Hirohisa, confirmed Japan will supply 48,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to Vanuatu.
Ambassador Hirohisa said these vaccines manufactured by Japan will be arriving in batches.
His confirmation came after Japan’s Prime Minister, Yoshihide Suga, declared during this year's virtual Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting (PALM9) Conference, that Japan intends to provide a total of approximately three million doses of vaccines to Pacific Island countries.
Photo file Vanuatu receives the first doses of Sinopharm vaccine