Global health: Syria to receive first shipment of Corona vaccines in a few weeks

Aggimal Magtimova, representative of the World Health Organization in Syria, announced that Damascus will receive in a few weeks the first shipment of Covid-19 vaccines through the global “Kovacs” program.

He added, in a statement to “Reuters” from Damascus, that the first batches of the vaccine will include one million doses of the “AstraZeneca” vaccine.

He indicated that the “Kovacs” program to ensure a fair distribution of vaccines represents a ray of hope for the country devastated by war and whose health and financial resources are under severe pressure.

The first vaccination campaign, which may start in late April or early May, aims to vaccinate 20 percent of the population by the end of the year, which is approximately 5 million people in government-controlled areas, the northeast and northwest.

The national program will be deployed in state-controlled areas where 20 million people live, dozens of teams in 76 hospitals and 300 mobile units to reach remote areas.

Magtimova said 336,000 doses will be shipped to northwestern Syria, an area not under government control, through partners on the border through the Turkish Gaziantep crossing.

Another 90,000 doses of vaccines will be delivered to the Kurdish-controlled northeast, and mobile teams will reach camps hosting tens of thousands of displaced people.

Health officials said a 5,000-dose shipment of the Chinese “Sinopharma” vaccine was the first to reach Syria outside of the “Kovacs” initiative, a donation from China to front-line workers in the health sector.

Source: Reuters