Due to developments in the global COVID-19 pandemic the Iraqi ministry of health has given orders “to give an additional (third) dose” of the vaccine, the ministerial statement said.
“The additional dose is given to risk groups that include immunodeficiency patients, people with chronic diseases, the elderly over 60 years of age, workers in health institutions, after a period of no less than six months following receiving the second dose of one of the Covid-19 vaccines,” added the statement.
The third dose can be of any type of the vaccine, regardless of what the individual had taken for the previous two doses, according to the ministry.
A third wave of the coronavirus hit the Kurdistan Region and Iraq between June and July, seeing record-high numbers of daily infections.
Iraq and the Kurdistan Region has recently witnessed an upsurge in coronavirus cases that could lead to devastating consequences. Both areas are registering high numbers of infections and deaths. Last month, Iraq warned of the spread of a new strain of the virus.
The surge has contributed to an increased demand for vaccines, but the decline in the rate of infections and misleading information has discouraged some people from getting vaccinated.
As a new wave of coronavirus threatened Iraq, students returned to classes for the start of a new academic year in November. Mid-November, the health ministry warned of a new wave as vaccinations declined.
Iraq has been reporting over 500 to 800 cases daily in the past few days. At the beginning of this month, Baghdad said it will make the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine available for children aged 12 and above, with priority given to high-risk groups within the age range.
As of Tuesday, 44 cases of the new omicron variant were reported across 11 European Union nations, according to the European Union’s European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. Fearing the greater transmissibility of the new strain, increasing numbers of countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, and the UAE have now banned travel to parts of Africa, where the new strain was first identified in South Africa.
To date, Iraq has recorded over 2,000,000 cases and 23,820 deaths since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, including in the Kurdistan Region.
