China to donate 700,000 COVID vaccines to Afghanistan

China will donate 700,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Afghanistan, Afghan health officials confirmed Sunday.

Officials from the Public Health Ministry (MoPH) stated that the Chinese Sinopharm developed COVID-19 vaccine that will be donated has similar efficacy to the AstraZeneca vaccine.

According to the officials, the vaccine is 91 percent effective for people who have already had COVID-19, 76 percent effective for adults up to 50 years old, and 83 percent effective for people above the age of 50.

The vaccine will be handed over to the Afghan government in the near future, the official added.

Afghanistan, so far, has administered 968,000 doses of AstraZeneca, which were donated by the Indian government, and COVAX.

The MoPH stated that 280,000 members of Afghan security forces, more than 120,000 doctors and health workers, and 560,000 civilians have been vaccinated so far.

This comes as Afghanistan has recorded 500 cases of the British variant of Covid-19 as the third wave of the pandemic hit the country.

The Ministry said that the cases were registered in Nangarhar, Kunar, Laghman, Kabul, Logar, Paktia, and Ghazni provinces.

The Ministry also warned that the new variant of the virus could spread across the country.

Meanwhile, 547 positive cases of COVID-19 have been registered in the past 24 hours in Afghanistan.

According to the MoPH tally, ten people have died of the virus while 146 others recovered in the past 24 hours.

So far, 66,275 people have been infected with the virus in Afghanistan of which 2,812 people have died.