Maputo — Mozambican Prime Minister, Carlos Agostinho do Rosario, pledged a transparent and very thorough use of the 484,000 doses of vaccines, delivered on Monday to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

The consignment consists of 484,000 doses of Coveshield vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India. Of this batch, 100,000 doses were donated by the New Delhi government and the remaining under the COVAX global initiative.

Thus, the country has already received 684,000 doses of vaccine after the 200,000 doses from the Chinese company Sinopharm donated in February by the Chinese government.

Speaking on Monday in Maputo, after the delivery, Rosario said the vaccines will be used transparently and in compliance with the country’s national vaccination plan.

“The vaccine we have just received is under administration in several European, African, Asian and American countries, to diminish the serious forms of Covid-19 and reduce the number of deaths”, Rosario said, pointing out that Mozambique will continue to promote diplomatic efforts to ensure the acquisition of more vaccines through bilateral and multilateral partnerships.

The Indian High Commissioner accredited in Mozambique, Ankan Banerjee, said the vaccine was a gift from his country to the world.

The European Union Ambassador to Mozambique, Antonio Gaspar, revealed that the country will receive an additional batch of over two million doses within the next month, under the COVAX global initiative.

A press release from the EU delegation in Maputo said that all the vaccines that arrived in Monday are the Astra-Zeneca/Oxford vaccine produced in India.

Cited by the press release, Gaspar said “Making sure everyone has access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines is a top priority of the European Union. We work together to guarantee that partner countries like Mozambique receive the vaccines and start vaccinating its citizens”.

“Team Europe, which is the European Union together with the EU Member States, has been leading global efforts to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines are available to all countries and to as many citizens as possible. Team Europe is among the largest contributor to the COVAX mechanism with more than EUR 2.2 billion”, he added.