SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The Iraqi ministry of health said on Sunday that it had selected 60 centers at hospitals across the country to distribute Pfizer coronavirus vaccine.
Speaking to state-media Sabah newspaper, general-director of health Riyadh Abdil al-Haifi said the number of centers would be increased if it was necessary to do so.
“The ministry has prepared a plan to determine the centers for the Pfizer vaccine upon its arrival to Iraq,” Sabah newspaper quoted him as saying.
As of Saturday, the Iraqi health ministry said it had recorded 602,331 cases of the coronavirus, of which 12,881 died and 554,990 recovered.
On December 27, spokesman of Iraqi health ministry Saif al-Badr said the National Authority for Drug Selection had approved emergency use of Pfizer’s coronavirus.
Badr said on December 21 that Iraq had agreed with Pfizer to import 1.5 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine and that the vaccine would arrive in the country early next year.
In October, the ministry of health said the government would prioritize healthcare workers, members of security forces and other high-risk groups to receive the vaccine.
BioNTech began developing the vaccine in January, using a technology called synthetic messenger RNA (mRNA) that had yet to produce an approved product.
The technology uses a chemical messenger to instruct cells to make proteins that mimic part of the new coronavirus, which the immune system learns to recognize as an invader. BioNTech struck a development deal with Pfizer in March.
The vaccine comes with complex distribution challenges as it must be shipped and stored at -70 Celsius (-94 F), requiring specialized ultra-cold freezers or supplies of dry ice.
Pfizer has developed a special shipping container that will be filled with dry ice to keep the vaccine from spoiling.
