Chinese Government donates 200,000 Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine doses worth $3.6 million in August 2021

Project narrative

On August 19, 2021, Chinese Government delivered 200,000 donated doses of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccines to the Government of Rwanda. A donation ceremony was held at Kigali International Airport. Rao Hongwei, the Chinese Ambassador to Rwanda, and Daniel Ngamije, Rwanda's Minister of Health signed the handover certificate. According to the Chinese ambassador, the commitment to donate the vaccines had been made about a month prior. This donation is one in a series of vaccine donations. On November 7, 2021, the Chinese Government delivered another 300,000 donated doses of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccines to the Government of Rwanda (see Record ID#95959). On January 11, 2022, Rao Hongwei, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Rwanda, had a phone call with Hon. Vincent Biruta, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Rwanda, and officially notified him that the Chinese Government would donate a total of 4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Rwanda in 2022. However, as of December 2022, there was no evidence of this pledge being fulfilled.