Timor-Leste received today 12 thousand doses of vaccines offered by Portugal
Today, July 20th, 2021, took place the handover ceremony of a batch of 12 thousand AstraZeneca vaccines against COVID-19, donated by Portugal.
At the ceremony, held at President Nicolau Lobato International Airport, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, through its Secretary General, Ambassador Jorge Camões, officially received the COVID-19 vaccines from the Portuguese Ambassador in Dili, José Pedro Machado Vieira.
This is the first batch of vaccines offered by Portugal, which has pledged to donate three million doses to Portuguese-Speaking African Countries (PALOP) and Timor-Leste. As a Member State of the European Union, Portugal has also contributed to the COVAX mechanism, a global initiative through which 124,800 vaccines have already arrived in the country.
So far, Timor-Leste has received a total of 363,580 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine and 100,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine.
Nationwide, 250,644 people (33.2% of the population over 18 years) have already received the first dose and 56,627 people (7.5%) have completed the vaccination.
In the Dili Municipality, 121,841 people (56.9%) have already received the first dose of the vaccine against COVID-19, and 43,982 people have already received both doses (20.5%).
The handover ceremony was also attended by UNICEF Representative in Timor-Leste, Bilal Aurang Zeb Durrai.
