China to provide one million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Myanmar

(ECNS) -- A new batch of over 740,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines left Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, for northern Myanmar on Tuesday.

It is part of 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines domestically-developed by Sinovac to help northern Myanmar fight the pandemic, according to an arrangement by China's Ministry of Commerce and China International Development Cooperation Agency.

Seven vehicles transporting the first batch of vaccine doses on Tuesday arrived at bordering cites or prefectures of Yunnan, including Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, and Baoshan.

Transportation of the 1 million vaccines would be completed by March 10 this year as mutually agreed by both governments, with the remaining 253,200 vaccine doses to depart Beijing on Feb. 9.

"My sincere thanks go to the Chinese government," said Thaw Tar Aung, consul general of Myanmar in Kunming, noting the one million Chinese vaccine dose program means a lot to Myanmar to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.