More than 730,000 COVID-19 vaccines out of 2 million vaccines donated by China arrived in Yangon on Thursday.
Myanmar’s delegation, led by deputy minister of the junta-controlled Ministry of Health and Sports Dr. Aye Tun, received the shipment, said the regime.
The remaining vaccines are scheduled to arrive in Yangon this week. Myanmar has also purchased 4 million COVID-19 vaccines from China and 2 million of them are set to arrive in Yangon this week, said the health ministry.
On May 2, China donated 500,000 vaccines to Myanmar. After Myanmar was gripped by a fresh wave of COVID-19 in June, China announced its plan to donate 2 million more vaccines.
The health ministry said 30,000 Remdesivir tablets, a medicine used to treat coronavirus, arrived in Naypyitaw from India on July 20.
Before the February coup, the civilian government purchased 30 million Covishield vaccines from India and received 1.5 million vaccines as a present in an initial batch.
The government started vaccinating the prioritized groups in January but the military staged a coup and the vaccination program was thrown into chaos.
On Thursday Myanmar reported 253,364 COVID-19 cases with 6,133 deaths since the first cases were reported in March last year, according to the ministry. The actual figures are believed to be higher.
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