BUJUMBURA October 17th (ABP) – The People’s Republic of China granted, Thursday, October 14, 2021, to Burundi, more than 500,000 doses of sinopharm-type vaccine against Covid-19.
That Chinese donation was received by the Minister of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS, Thaddée Ndikumana, along with the Minister of the Interior, Public Security and Community Development, Gervais Ndirakobuca.
The representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Burundi, Xavier Crispin said that it is a vaccine that is given in two doses, with an interval of three to four weeks. “It is only after these two doses of vaccine that we can speak of a person fully vaccinated against Covid-19,” he added. “I would like to reassure the entire population that this is a very effective and valid vaccine for the context and we invite, on a voluntary basis, the whole community to come and be vaccinated”, he reassured.
According to Minister Ndikumana anyone who wants to be vaccinated must first register. “We will open the registrations which will be made voluntarily and which will be followed by the signing of the consent as recommended by the WHO,” he said.
That minister announced that, shortly, we will create registration sites in order to be able to identify the number of people wishing for this vaccine, determine the number of vaccines to be deployed in such or such other site and under all conditions. completely secure. And to specify that the screening will be accentuated why before being vaccinated it is imperative to be tested negative for Covid-19. Otherwise, the person will be put on treatment first, he insisted.
He said more doses of the vaccine promised by the World Bank (WB) are expected from the United States of America. In addition, France and the Kingdom of Belgium have promised more doses, he noted.
In addition, he clarified that being vaccinated in no way means being spared from Covid-19, hence he called for strict compliance with barrier measures.
“When we are friends we share the cooked and the raw,” said the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Burundi, Mrs. Xao Jiang Ping. She revealed that this country has already granted one billion four hundred million doses of vaccine to developing countries. By the end of 2021 China is committed to providing a total of six billion doses of the vaccine, she said.
According to her, that vaccine donation illustrates the Chinese government’s determination to strengthen international relations in the fight against Covid-19.
She revealed that China positively appreciates the measures against Covid-19 taken by Burundi while promising that her country will always remain at the side of the Burundians in that relentless fight against this pandemic.
Note that in Burundi the first positive case of Covid-19 was declared on March 31, 2020.