Help arrives from regional friend

The Philippines received an additional batch of the Sinovac vaccine CoronaVac from China on Sunday.

China donated the first batch to the Philippines on Feb 28, allowing the country to begin its vaccination drive the next day. It had administered more than 5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines by May 30, primarily to frontline healthcare workers, the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions.

The country, which aims to vaccinate up to 70 million people this year, had recorded 1,262,273 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 21,732 deaths from it by Saturday.

On Saturday, Timor-Leste received a batch of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines and syringes donated by China.

Timor-Leste's Vice-Prime Minister Armanda Berta dos Santos, China's Ambassador to Timor-Leste Xiao Jianguo, representatives of the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization to Timor-Leste and other officials from the Timor-Leste government attended the handover ceremony of the vaccines at Dili International Airport.

Xiao said the Chinese government had closely followed what was happening with the pandemic in Timor-Leste and attached great importance to the country's urgent need, standing in solidarity with it.

Timor-Leste's Minister of Health Odete Maria Freitas Belo thanked China for the donation and praised the traditional friendship and close collaboration between the two countries.

Since last year China has stood firmly with Timor-Leste at all stages of COVID-19 prevention and control and has provided various forms of help, the minister said.

Xinhua