By ARNALDO VIEIRA

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Angola will receive $ 50 million from the European Investment Bank to purchase Covid-19 vaccines, the country’s President João Lourenço said on Friday.

President Lourenço made the announcement after meeting the head of the European Council Charles Michel and his delegation in Luanda.

The country has made major investments in infrastructure within its framework measures to fight against Covid-19 pandemic, which also includes efforts to acquire vaccines, he said.

"We also hope to benefit $ 50m from the European Investment Bank to purchase vaccines," President Lourenço said. He added that the country had acquired 6,000,000 Sputnik V vaccines from Russia. The first batch of the vaccines half is expected in the country this month.

We discussed matters of common interest with the Angolan President, Mr Charles Michel said after the meeting. He expressed the European Council’s desire to continue working with the country on several issues.

As at April 30, Angola had recorded 26, 652 coronavirus cases with 2,180 cases still active. It had also recorded 596 deaths and 23,876 recoveries.

Meanwhile, the Japanese government disbursed $ 450,000 in emergency aid to support Angolan authorities in fighting Covid-19, strengthening vaccines management, storage of its distribution system.

“We reinforce our commitment and join efforts to support the fight against the pandemic in Angola”, Mr Jiro Maruhashi, the Japanese ambassador to Luanda said.

The Angolan government hopes to vaccinate 22 million people by the end of 2021.

Angola received 624,000 doses of Covid-19 jabs from the Covax initiative on March 2 and started vaccinating its population three days later.