Senegal president Macky Sall has announced that the country is in the process of acquiring over 6.7 million doses of coronavirus vaccines days after the first consignment of 200,000 Sinopharm vaccines arrived in Dakar.
"I am also pleased to announce that we have already started the process of acquiring other batches of vaccines in the next few weeks for a total of 6,798,000 doses which will allow us to enter the phase of mass vaccination," Sall said in a tweet of Friday, February 19.
Earlier this week, he had tasked the Institut Pasteur in Dakar — which produces a vaccine against yellow fever, to examine the possibility of locally producing coronavirus vaccines.
Senegal took delivery of its first batch of coronavirus vaccines on Wednesday. The 200,000 Sinopharm doses were flown in from China. They cost the government an estimated USD 3.8 million.
"Today, and I say this with pride, we are entering a new stage in our common fight against our common enemy; a hopeful step, with the receipt of these 200,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines," he said in another tweet referring to the Sinopharm consignment.
Since the onset of the pandemic, Senegal has recorded over 32,000 cases — including 787 deaths and 26,624 recoveries.
Senegal virus stats as of Feb 19, 2021 at 12:00 GMT:
Total confirmed cases = 32,378
Active confirmed cases = 4,967
Recovered = 26,624
Deaths = 787
