China is donating 10 million vaccines to 53 developing countries according to its embassy in Kenya.

The country said it will donate the vaccine doses to developing nations through the global COVAX initiative where Kenya is expected to benefit from the global effort coordinated by the World Health Organization and Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), the Vaccine Alliance.

“China is donating vaccines to 53 developing countries. We have exported and are exporting vaccines to 22 countries. China actively participates in COVAX and decided to provide 10M doses of vaccines to the program, mainly to meet the demand of developing countries,” the Chinese Embassy in Kenya said on twitter.

Kenya is hoping to benefit from GAVI,  which will provide a dose of the vaccine procured through Covax- the main global programme for vaccinating people against the virus in poor and middle-income countries, for $7 (Sh781).

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The GAVI initiative aims to deliver at least two billion vaccine doses to 20 per cent of the most vulnerable people in 91 countries – mostly in Africa, Asia and Latin America – by the end of 2021.

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said Kenya has also set aside Sh10 billion to cover 10 per cent of the population. CS Kagwe said the Ministry prefers Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine , which is far cheaper and is easier to store compared to Pfizer/BioNTech, and Moderna vaccines.

He said Kenya has ordered 24 million doses of the vaccine from the initiative as the government also explores ways of partnering with Chinese organizations that have developed Covid-19 jabs.

The ministry in an earlier statement said additional funds can be drawn from domestic resources and/or multilateral development partners such as the World Bank to support the cost-sharing contributions.