Portugal sends Covid-19 vaccines to Senegal

The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Francisco André, will formally hand over to the Senegalese Minister of Health and Social Action Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr, a batch of 298,700 Covid-19 vaccines, in Dakar on 18 October. This is the first Portuguese donation through COVAX.

This initiative stems from the political commitment to send to our cooperation partners at least 5% of the Covid-19 vaccines procured by Portugal, under which the country has already delivered more than 1.2 vaccine doses to the Portuguese-speaking African countries and East Timor.

During his trip to Senegal, Francisco André will also meet the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and the Senegalese Abroad, Moïse Sarr, with whom he will discuss bilateral matters and matters on the international agenda that are of common interest.

There will also be a visit to the Portuguese Language Centre at the Cheikh Anta Diop University’s School of Letters and Humanities, in Dakar, where around 2,300 students are currently studying Portuguese Language. The Centre was created in 2006 and was extended to the Assane Seck de Ziguinchor University in 2016. In total, 49,516 secondary and higher education students are studying Portuguese in Senegal.