Chinese Government donates 100,000 Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine doses worth $1.8 million in July 2021

On June 23, 2021, the Chinese Government dispatched a shipment of 100,000 donated doses of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccines and more than 100,000 syringes to the Government of Suriname. On the same day, a vaccine delivery ceremony was held in Beijing. Han Jing, the incoming Chinese ambassador to Suriname, Chen Jiahui, the Surinamese ambassador to China, and representatives of the Sinopharm company attended the ceremony. Then on July 2, 2021, the vaccines arrived to Suriname and a handover ceremony was held at the Presidential Palace of Suriname. Media reports suggest that there was a reluctance to be vaccinated within the Chinese community in Suriname. There was an apparent lack of trust of vaccines produced in Western countries. These vaccines include AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Pfizer. There are also indications that some of the Surinamese Chinese community waited for the vaccine produced in China to be imported into the country. When 100,000 doses of Sinopharm arrived in Suriname, thousands of Chinese came out to be vaccinated. Then, in July 2021, a scandal came to light involving fraudulent vaccination certificates. Persons who do not wish to be vaccinated paid as much as 40 euros to obtain a vaccination certificate without taking the shot.

Additional details

1. According to the UNICEF COVID-19 Vaccine Market Dashboard, the price of a single Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine dose is $18 (https://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=DCD/DAC/STAT(2022)33&docLanguage=En). As such, AidData has estimated the monetary value of the June 2021 donation as $1.8 million.

Number of official sources

5

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