Senegal is due to receive 300,000 doses of the Chinese-made coronavirus vaccine Sinopharm this week, the governments of the West African country and China said.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Senegalese President Macky Sall said that China was going to deliver 300,000 vaccine doses, as well as 308,000 syringes.

"I appreciate this gesture of solitary from China," he said.

The vaccines are due to reach the capital Dakar by the end of the week, according to China's embassy in Senegal.

Beijing has donated its Sinopharm vaccine — which its developers say is 79-percent effective — to several poor countries as part of a global diplomatic push.

As with other African states, Senegal's infection rate is far below levels reached in the West, having recorded over 40,000 Covid-19 infections since March 2020 and 1,121 deaths.

Over 430,000 people in the nation of 16 million people have also received Covid-19 jabs, according to the latest government figures.

Senegal received some 300,000 AstraZeneca doses this year as part of the global Covax programme aimed at boosting immunisation in poorer nations.

But the government also bought 200,000 doses of Sinopharm for its vaccination campaign.

The announcement of China's donation of a new consignment of Sinopharm doses comes after the World Health Organisation approved the vaccine for emergency use last week.

China delivers half a million vaccines to Bangladesh
Dhaka (AFP) May 12, 2021 –

China on Wednesday gave half a million Covid-19 vaccine doses to Bangladesh, in Beijing's latest move to fill the gap left by India as it reels from the pandemic.

After cases surged in March, India froze exports of coronavirus vaccines to dozens of countries — including those in South Asia where New Delhi has held sway.

Although Dhaka had signed an agreement with India to buy 30 million doses only seven million arrived — plus another 3.3 million as a gift — before New Delhi called a halt to exports.

"A friend in time of need is a friend indeed," Bangladesh's health minister Zahid Maleque said during a ceremony in Dhaka airport when the Sinopharm vaccines were handed over by China's ambassador.

The delivery follows a videoconference last month with Beijing and several South Asian nations — excluding India — during which China offering vaccines and other medical supplies.

Because of shortages, Bangladesh had already rolled back parts of the vaccine drive, allowing only those with a first jab to queue for the second dose.

But health department spokesman Robed Amin told AFP that Dhaka was now planning to get 50 million Chinese shots, with minister Zahid Maleque telling reporters that Dhaka plans to buy the vaccines from China or to produce them in Bangladesh.

Earlier foreign minister A.K. Abdul Momen told AFP Dhaka was also holding talks with Russia to import the Sputnik V vaccine.

He praised a Chinese plan to set up an emergency supply reserve for the region, as proposed by Beijing during the video conference.

Momen said the Sinopharm vaccines "will create a new era of relationship" between Beijing and Dhaka.

"China has become a great friend of Bangladesh over the years. And we look for better days," he added.

Elsewhere, Nepal sent an aircraft to China on Tuesday to pick up the first 400 out of a promised 20,000 oxygen cylinders as well as other medical supplies.

Beijing has also provided 800,000 coronavirus vaccines to Nepal, where cases are surging.

Kathmandu had received a million doses of the AstraZeneca shot from India, plus half of another promised two million, in addition to 350,000 via the Covax initiative.

And Sri Lanka has begun using 600,000 shots from China after deliveries from India stopped, while the Maldives has received 200,000.