Brunei's Health Ministry announced that its country received a batch of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine donated by China and is reviewing a vaccination program.
RELATED:
Brunei: Sultan Returns Honorary Oxford Degree After 'Death by Stoning' Backlash
The sultanate's Second Minister of Foreign Affairs Haji Erywan attended the handover ceremony on Tuesday and held a discussion with Yu Hong, Chinese ambassador to Brunei.
Haji Erywan said that the Chinese vaccine would play an important role for Brunei to overcome the epidemic. Ambassador Yu told Haji Erywan that China's COVID-19 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.
"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 program," she added.
China supports domestic companies in conducting joint R&D and manufacturing with foreign partners, and in exporting vaccines to countries that are in urgent need of vaccines, have certified Chinese vaccines, and authorized their emergency use.
As of Thursday morning, Brunei had reported 183 COVID-19 cases and 3 related deaths.