First batch of AstraZeneca vaccine arrives in the Kurdistan Region

Kurdistan 10:59 AM - 2021-03-26

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On Friday, the Minister of Health of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced that the first batch of the anti-coronavirus AstraZeneca vaccine has arrived in the Kurdistan Region.

 

The Minister of Health, Dr. Saman Barzanji, said during a press conference: "The first batch of the anti-coronavirus AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in the Kurdistan Region, which consists of 43,800 doses.

 

He added: "There are many other doses of the anti-coronavirus vaccines that will reach the Kurdistan Region, and this gives hope to citizens towards reducing the impact of coronavirus."

 

He explained that the Ministry of Health will start the process of distributing the vaccine, and the priority will be for employees of the Ministry of Health and after that the security forces and people with chronic diseases.

 

The Health Minister pointed out that the rate of coronavirus infections is increasing continuously, and "we have more than 700 new infections during the past 24 hours, so we call on citizens to continue to follow health instructions," indicating that the Coronavirus Supreme Committee will meet soon to take other preventive measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

 

The Minister of Health indicated that the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and effective against coronavirus, and the news on stopping the use of the vaccine is not correct and that the Kurdistan Region has continuous coordination with the World Health Organization to follow up the course of vaccinating citizens with the AstraZeneca vaccine.

 

The KRG's Ministry of Health on Thursday announced that 43,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will arrive in the Kurdistan Region on Friday. 

 

While the Iraqi Ministry of Health announced earlier on Thursday that 336,000 doses of the vaccine had arrived, which is part of large batches that will arrive in Iraq.

 

Regarding the Kurdistan Region’s share of the vaccine, Dr. Aso Hawezy, the spokesman for the Ministry of Health in the Kurdistan Region, said during a special statement to PUKmedia, that the region’s share of the AstraZeneca vaccine is 336,000 vaccine doses.

 

Hawezy indicated that, according to the information available to them, it is expected that more than 10 million vaccine doses will arrive in Iraq during the next ten days, indicating that the Kurdistan Region will have a share of these vaccines as well.

 

So far the Kurdistan Region has recorded over 116,000 with more than 107,000 and over 3,600 deaths from the virus. 

 

 

 

PUKmedia