Donated Chinese Covid jabs ‘ready for collection’
2021-03-05
About 100 000 Covid-19 vaccine doses donated by the Chinese government to Namibia were ready for collection, the Chinese embassy spokesperson Helen Lu said yesterday.
The Chinese embassy last month announced it had donated 100 000 Covid-19 vaccines, while it also said it had listed Namibia among the priority countries for purchasing the sought-after vaccines, manufactured in that country, to help fight the pandemic.
“The Chinese government is ready. So far, China has assisted about 53 countries in the world with Covid-19 doses. We are just waiting for the authorisation from the Namibian side to collect the doses. The ball is on the Namibian side,” she indicated.
‘We are committed to Covid’ … Namibia, Botswana to cooperate on virus vaccines
2021-02-01
The governments of Namibia and Botswana have agreed to collaborate in the procurement and rollout of Covid-19 vaccines. This was confirmed by both President Hage Geingob and his counterpart Mokgweetsi Masisi, who was in Namibia last Friday for a one-day working visit.
Briefing the reporters at State House, Masisi explained both heads of state discussed areas of economic cooperation, including in the tourism and health space in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We are dead committed to procuring vaccines. We have shared an elaborative plan that ministers will talk about, where we will collaborate to protect our citizens. We are committed to Covid,” he said.
Namibia will know next week whether the new variant of the novel coronavirus, which was confirmed in neighbouring South Africa, is responsible for the surge of local infections reported in December last year.
Since the start of the current marketing season in May 2020, more commercial imports were received – and by end of December 2020, Namibia has imported about 29 400 metric tons of cereal.
Air Namibia liquidation bad for tourism
2021-02-15
As the nation continues to express dismay, as many do not agree with the government’s announcement on the liquidation of Air Namibia, stakeholders in the tourism and hospitality industry feel such a move will adversely affect the lucrative sector, which is one of the biggest contributors to the country’s GDP.
Latest statistics indicate that the travel and tourism sector contributed 11% to the GDP in 2020.
Environment and tourism spokesperson Romeo Muyunda has described the situation with Air Namibia as sad.
“The airline carried the Namibian flag and was part of our pride as Namibians. Furthermore, the airline has been a major stakeholder in the development of tourism in the country. The impact of its liquidation will be felt by the tourism sector mostly,” Muyunda expressed.