The country will begin administering the doses this week, President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa said on his official Twitter profile.
“The first batch of vaccines for Zimbabwe has been successfully delivered. We are starting to vaccinate Zimbabweans this week! The sooner our country is protected from this virus, the faster Zimbabwe’s economy can flourish,” he said.
The country’s health ministry tweeted on Sunday that the 200,000 doses were donated by China.
An additional 600,000 doses will arrive from China in early March, Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said last week. It is unclear how much money the South African nation will pay for China National Pharmaceutical Group’s (Sinopharm) second batch of vaccines.
Zimbabwe’s Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, head of the delegation that received the vaccines, including the Treasury Secretary, said primary health workers would be the first to be vaccinated.
“This is a timely donation … our people have suffered from this pandemic. The vaccine has the potential for our people who have suffered from the economic devastation of the pandemic to finally turn a new page,” Chiwenga said.
Zimbabwe has set aside $ 100 million for vaccines and wants to buy 20 million doses to immunize about 60% of its population and achieve immunity to the herd.
Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said about 1.8 million doses of vaccine would be obtained from China. He gave no further details.
Last week, West African Senegal paid $ 3.7 million for 200,000 doses of the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine – nearly $ 19 per injection.
Only a handful of African countries have started giving vaccinations as the continent rushes to get supplies for its 1.3 billion people, while many wealthier countries are leading the way with massive immunization programs.
The African Union says it has secured about 670 million doses for the African continent.
Zimbabwe is also negotiating with Russia to purchase its Sputnik vaccines and expected more doses from India and COVAX.
The country has reported nearly 35,000 confirmed cases of the virus and nearly 1,400 deaths so far.