Ethiopia Receives 499,200 Doses of AstraZeneca Vaccine from UK

ADDIS ABABA – The United Kingdom on Tuesday donated 499,200 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Ethiopia through the COVAX dose sharing mechanism.

Dr. Lia Taddese, Health minister of Ethiopia, expressed her appreciation to the government of UK for the donation after receiving the vaccines at Addis Ababa Bole International Airport.

“These doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be used primarily as a second dose for those who have already received their first dose and will enhance our efforts to mitigate the pandemic,” said the minister.

She also thanked the COVAX facility, UNICEF Ethiopia , and Ethiopian Airlines for their continued support in facilitating the logistics and delivery of vaccines.

As of Monday evening, Ethiopia conducted more than 3.12 million tests to confirm the 289, 962 cases.

As part of the response to the pandemic, its health officials are currently carrying out a national immunization campaign which so far, saw more than 2.3 million doses of vaccines, mostly AstraZeneca, provided to the public.

The East African nation launched its vaccination push on March 13 – a week after its health officials obtained 2.2 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses from the COVAX Facility.

Apart from UK, the governments of China and United State has also provided vaccination support to Ethiopia’s immunization campaign