Zim receives second batch of Sinopharm vaccine

HARARE - Zimbabwe yesterday received a second batch of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccines.

It includes a Chinese donation of 200, 000 doses and 144, 000 doses bought by the government, and comes four weeks after the first batch.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa was at the airport in the arrival of the capital, Harare, to receive the consignment, according to state media.

Zimbabwe has so far confirmed 36, 504 cases of coronavirus and 1, 504 deaths since the pandemic started.

It launched its Covid-19 vaccination campaign last month and aims to vaccinate 10 million people.

And Rwanda has eased some of its restrictive measures against the spread of coronavirus, including a reduction of night curfew hours.

In a statement on Monday night, the government reduced the curfew by two hours and it will now run from 21:00 to 04:00 local time - with businesses required to close by 20:00.

Movement between the capital, Kigali, and the rest of the country resumed yesterday, apart from three districts of the southern and eastern provinces.

Physical meetings have also resumed but should not exceed 30 percent of the venue capacity, but all bars remain closed.

Ethiopia and Somalia are the latest African entrants to a red list of countries from where travel to England is banned.

African countries already on the list include Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles and South Africa.