BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Feb 11 (NNN-XINHUA) – Brunei’s Ministry of Health said, the country received a batch of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine donated by China, and is reviewing a vaccination programme.
In Mar, 2020, at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brunei provided assistance to China, which underscored the close bilateral cooperation towards managing the pandemic, the ministry said.
The ministry said, they are still reviewing the plans for the distribution of the vaccine, in accordance with the recommended priorities.
According to the Chinese embassy in Brunei, it’s Second Minister of Foreign Affairs, Haji Erywan, attended the handover ceremony and held a discussion with Yu Hong, the Chinese ambassador to Brunei.
Haji Erywan expressed his gratitude to China, saying that, this is the first batch of COVID-19 vaccine received by Brunei, which is considered a gift by the Chinese people to the people of Brunei, reflecting the long-term traditional friendship and deep mutual trust between the two countries.
He said, the Chinese vaccine would play an important role for Brunei, to overcome the pandemic. Brunei is willing to take the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries and the 30th anniversary of China-ASEAN dialogue relations, as an opportunity to promote bilateral relations and China-ASEAN relations to a new level, he added.
Ambassador Yu said, China’s vaccine assistance to Brunei reflects a new climax of bilateral cooperation against the COVID-19 pandemic.
“At present, global COVID-19 vaccines are mainly distributed to a few developed countries, although the vaccines are crucial for all countries to restart their economies. Under such circumstances, China’s vaccine assistance to Brunei highlights the true friendship between our two countries,” the ambassador said during the discussion.
“China is providing vaccine aid to 53 developing countries, and we have exported and are exporting vaccines to 22 countries. China also actively participates in the WHO-led COVAX and decided to provide 10 million doses of vaccines to the programme, mainly to meet the demand of developing countries,” Yu said.
She expressed hope that the vaccine assistance will help contribute to the final victory of Brunei, in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brunei reported one new imported case of COVID-19 yesterday, bringing the national tally to 183.
A total of 42 imported cases have been confirmed, since the last local infection case on May 6, 2020. At present, Brunei has recorded 280 days without COVID-19 local infection cases. Five active cases are still being treated at the National Isolation Centre and all are in stable condition.
There have been three deaths from COVID-19 in Brunei and 175 patients have recovered.– NNN-XINHUA
