SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The Kurdistan Region will receive 130,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines in the coming days, a health official said on Sunday, as cases continue to rise.
Deputy minister of health Rahel Faraidun said the Region would receive its share of the vaccine from the federal government every week.
The Region will receive nearly 70,000 doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and around 50,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses this week, he told Esta Media Network.
As many as 20,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine will be sent to Erbil, 20,000 other doses to Duhok and up to 28,000 doses to Sulaimani, according to the official.
“To expedite the process of vaccination, we have added 11 other centers and the Pfizer vaccine doses will also distributed in those centers,” Faraidun said, noting that the Pfizer vaccine is given in 12 centers now.
UNICEF said on Saturday that Iraq had received 500,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines donated by the United States through global COVAX vaccine-sharing program.
“This donation will go a long way in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in Iraq,” said UNICEF Representative in Iraq, Sheema Sen Gupta.
On Thursday, a White House official said the United States would ship 503,100 Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine under COVAX.
U.S. President Joe Biden first disclosed the plans last month during a White House meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi in which the two leaders agreed the United States would end its combat mission in Iraq by the end of 2021.
This week, Erbil and Duhok is also expected to receive each 20,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine and Sulaimani province would get 10,000 doses, the Kurdish official said.
Iraq also received a third batch of COVID-19 vaccines donated by the Chinese government on Thursday. The federal government received the first two batches of coronavirus vaccines in March and April.
