“I’m pleased to announce the arrival of a new batch of 43,800 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from Baghdad today,” tweeted Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, adding that the vaccine “will be administered according to our group-based rollout plan.”
This is the Kurdistan Region’s share of 336,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine delivered to Iraq on Thursday through the COVAX initiative, designed to provide equitable access to vaccines across the globe. They will be distributed to all health facilities “fairly and freely,” the Iraqi health ministry said.
Some European countries have suspended use of the Oxford-developed AstraZeneca vaccine over blood clot fears. World Health Organization (WHO) and European regulators have said there is no evidence the vaccine causes adverse effects.
Barzani said his government is also continuing efforts to acquire more vaccines directly from suppliers.
First priority to receive the jab is healthcare workers, followed by security forces, the elderly, and the chronically ill.
Receiving the delivery on Friday morning, Kurdistan Region Minister of Health Saman Barzanji said he expects more vaccines soon. “Hopefully, in the near future more doses of both AstraZeneca and other vaccines will arrive to the Kurdistan Region,” he told Rudaw’s Dlnia Rahman.
Iraq previously received 50,000 doses of the Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccine and is due to also receive the Russian-made Sputnik vaccine in the coming weeks. Five thousand of the Sinopharm doses were gifted to the Kurdistan Region from China.
The Iraqi health ministry has also signed a deal with Pfizer for 1.5 million doses of its vaccine.
Baghdad is expected to receive a total of 16 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, confirmed on Thursday by Iraqi health minister Hassan al-Tamimi.
The Kurdistan Region is seeing a second wave of the coronavirus, recording a steady increase in daily new infections since mid-February. On Thursday, the health ministry recorded 601 new cases and five deaths, adding to a total of 117,412 cases and 3,622 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
