Covid vaccination process begins in Sulaymaniyah

Kurdistan 12:30 PM - 2021-03-07

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On Sunday, the Covid vaccination process has begun in Sulaymaniyah Governorate and the director of Sulaymaniyah Health Directorate took the first shot of the vaccine.

 

Dr. Herish Salim, Deputy Director-General of Sulaymaniyah Health Directorate, said in statement on Saturday that 5 thousand doses of the Covid vaccine has reached the Kurdistan Region, 1720 doses are Sulaymaniyah's share.

 

Dr. Herish revealed that the Sulaymaniyah Health Directorate has prepared 31 medical centers to distribute the vaccine, 12 of which are in the center of Sulaymaniyah governorate, and the rest are in the districts and sub-districts, and there is 420 health staff who will distribute the vaccine, and the vaccine will first be given to health cadres working in hospitals treating people with coronavirus, which are 4 hospitals.

 

Last Tuesday, the Iraqi Ministry of Defense announced that the anti-coronavirus vaccine had arrived in Iraq from the People's Republic of China.

 

The first batch of the Covid vaccine is from the Chinese Sinopharm company and was 50,000 doses which the Chinese government has donated to Iraq.

 

The Iraqi government has committed $170 million to secure a coronavirus vaccine, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

 

“Iraq is among the countries that are participating in COVAX. The country has committed $170 million towards this effort, and it is among the first countries to benefit from the vaccine,” says a statement from WHO in 2020.

 

Iraq has previously signed a deal with Pfizer in December last year to buy 1.5 million doses of coronavirus vaccine and according to its agreement with COVAX, Iraq is set to receive 16 million doses of the vaccine in exchange for 170 million dollars.

 

So far, the Kurdistan Region has recorded over 110,000 Covid cases with more than 104,000 recovery cases and over 3,500 deaths.

 

 

 

PUKmedia