Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte holds up a vial of Sinovac Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine as he witnesses the arrival of a shipment of the vaccines, which were delivered by a Chinese military aircraft, at Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Sunday in Manila, Philippines. Photo: AFP
More countries are approving and beginning their vaccination programs with Chinese vaccines, which have been donated to 53 developing countries and exported to 27, the latest data showed.
China will donate 50,000 shots of its Sinopharm vaccine to Lebanon, Chinese Ambassador to Lebanon Wang Kejian said on Twitter Monday.
Uzbekistan's government has approved a COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biofarmaceutical for use, the Uzbek ministry of innovation said on Monday.
The Philippines launched its COVID-19 vaccination campaign on Monday, a day after the arrival of a batch of Chinese-made Sinovac vaccines transported by a Y-20 aircraft of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force.
Philippine General Hospital Director Gerardo Legaspi, a renowned neurosurgeon, was the first Filipino to receive Sinovac's CoronaVac vaccine on Monday. Legaspi urged Filipinos, especially health workers, to get the vaccine, saying it is safe. The Philippine government aims to inoculate up to 70 million Filipinos this year to achieve herd immunity in the country, starting with healthcare workers, the elderly and poorer communities, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
About 600,000 doses of Chinese COVID-19 vaccine - 500,000 donated by the Chinese government and 100,000 by the Chinese military - arrived in the Philippines on Sunday. This was the first batch of COVID-19 vaccine received by the Philippines.
President Rodrigo Duterte went to the airport to welcome the vaccines and said he wanted to visit China and personally thank President Xi Jinping for them, inquirer.net reported.
This was the fourth donation of COVID-19 vaccines by the Chinese military. The PLA has also provided vaccines to the militaries of Pakistan, Cambodia and Mongolia in February.
Observers said that the donations made by the PLA to neighboring countries show that China and these countries are true friends that share weal and woe as military ties are the most sensitive, delicate and solid part of the bilateral relationship.
During the early COVID-19 outbreak in China, Pakistan donated all of its inventory masks in its hospitals to China. Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen visited Beijing in February 2020 when China was hit hard by the epidemic.
China has provided or is currently providing assistance in the form of vaccine to 53 developing countries and exporting them to 27 countries.
In the past days, more countries have expressed their gratitude and confidence in Chinese vaccines in different ways.
Indonesia issued special stamps themed on the COVID-19 vaccination, showing Indonesian President Joko Widodo receiving the Sinovac vaccine.