Iraq to receive Pfizer coronavirus vaccine Sunday

Iraq 10:22 AM - 2021-04-11

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Iraq is scheduled to receive the Pfizer coronavirus vaccines on Sunday, among them a first batch of the Pfizer vaccine, Director of Karkh Health Directorate told state media, denying imposing a comprehensive curfew in Iraq during Ramadan.

 

“New shipments of vaccines from separate sources will arrive at Baghdad International Airport, including the Pfizer vaccine on Sunday,” said Director of Karkh Health Directorate, Jaseb al-Hijami, in a press conference.

 

“The vaccines are safe and approved by the World Health Organization (WHO), and on arrival, they will be distributed among the vaccination bases in Baghdad and all governorates,” he said.

 

The health ministry signed a deal with Pfizer in December to purchase 1.5 million doses of its vaccine.

 

Iraq is in the second wave of infections, recording record high daily new cases with about over 20,000 cases in the last three days. 

 

The Director of Baghdad's Rusafa Health Directorate, Abdul Ghani Al-Saadi, said on Saturday that 126,000 citizens have been vaccinated, out of a total of 40 million people in Iraq, which is a very small percentage in the process of community immunization despite the availability of vaccines.

 

Al-Saadi added in a press statement, that there is a fear of side effects and complications such as blood clots that have not yet been diagnosed by scientists, and their association with the vaccine.

 

Iraq has previously received 336,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine and 50,000 of the Chinese-made Sinopharm and the vaccination campaign was launched through 700 outlets across the country. 

 

Iraq expects to receive 21 million and a half doses of vaccines from Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Sinopharm this month.

 

So far, Iraq has recorded over 918,000 coronavirus cases with more than 809,000 recoveries and over 14,600 deaths from the virus.

 

 

 

PUKmedia