Bolivia receives vaccine donation from China

China-donated COVID-19 vaccines arrived at Santa Cruz de la Sierra, the largest city of Bolivia, on Feb 24.

Bolivian President Luis Arce, Foreign Minister Rogelio Mayta, Chinese Ambassador to Bolivia Huang Yazhong and Chinese Consul General in Santa Cruz Wang Jialei received the vaccines at the airport.

Arce said that the Chinese government and people have given generous help to Bolivia since the COVID-19 outbreak by providing anti-pandemic medical supplies to support the Bolivian people’s fight against the pandemic.

The donation arrived in Bolivia at the very time when its government will rapidly arrange a large-scale vaccination for frontline medical workers and citizens in the country’s different areas, said Arce.

He said he believes that Bolivia will effectively curb the spread of the virus, safeguard people’s lives and health, help with production resumption and recover its economy with the help of the Chinese government and people.

Since the outbreak, China and Bolivia reached out to each other to fight against the pandemic and gained rich results in that cooperation, said Huang.

The two countries overcame difficulties such as remote distance and time lags and worked closely with coordination to make sure the donations arrived in less than two weeks after the two parties signed a vaccine cooperation agreement. That cooperation fully reflected the China-Bolivia strategic partnership and friendship between the people of the two countries, said Wang.

China is willing to further close communication and collaboration with Bolivia and continue to deepen cooperation in the anti-pandemic fight, said Wang.