The country will begin administering the doses this week, President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa said on his official Twitter profile.
“The first batch of vaccines for Zimbabwe has been successfully delivered. We start vaccinating Zimbabwe this week! The faster our country is protected from this virus, the faster Zimbabwe’s economy will prosper,” he said.
The country’s Ministry of Health tweeted on Sunday that the 200,000 doses were donated by China.
An additional 600,000 doses are expected to arrive from China in early March, Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said last week. It is unclear how much the South African nation will pay in cash for the second batch of vaccines from China’s National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm).
Zimbabwe Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, head of the delegation receiving the vaccines which included the finance minister, said top health workers would be the first to be vaccinated.
“This is a timely donation … our people have suffered this pandemic. The vaccine offers the chance for our people who have suffered the weight of the economic ravages of the pandemic to end up turning a new page,” Chiwenga said.
Zimbabwe has set aside $ 100 million for the acquisition of vaccines and is looking to buy 20 million doses to vaccinate about 60% of its population and achieve herd immunity.
Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said about 1.8 million doses of vaccine would be purchased from China. He gave no further details.
Last week, West African country Senegal paid $ 3.7 million for 200,000 doses of the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine, nearly $ 19 per shot.
Only a handful of African nations have begun to be vaccinated as the continent faces procuring supplies for its 1.3 billion people, although many richer nations are moving forward with mass vaccination programs.
The African Union says it has reached approximately 670 million doses for the African continent.
Zimbabwe is also negotiating with Russia on the acquisition of its Sputnik vaccines and was expecting more doses from India and COVAX.
The country has so far reported nearly 35,000 confirmed cases of the virus and nearly 1,400 deaths.