Iraq mandates vaccine card for travelers, waiters, health care workers

An Iraqi man is vaccinated against Covid-19 with the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine at a private nursing home in Baghdad, March 2, 2021. (Photo: Sabah Arar / AFP)
An Iraqi man is vaccinated against Covid-19 with the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine at a private nursing home in Baghdad, March 2, 2021. (Photo: Sabah Arar / AFP)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – In a bid to encourage citizens to receive the available vaccines in the country on Friday, Iraqi health authorities mandated a proof of vaccination card for people delivering food services, private health care workers, and travelers.

The Iraqi Health Ministry on Friday asked the travel agencies across the country not to issue any tickets for travelers unless they hold a vaccine card, according to a ministry statement.

The mandate extends to those who work in food services as well as workers in shopping malls.

Staff in private clinics, pharmacies, and labs are also required to get vaccinated in order to operate.

In early March, Iraq received its first doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, later followed by the AstraZeneca jab developed by Oxford university.

The country expects more doses of COVID-19 to arrive in the country in the near future, according to health authorities.

The decisions seem to be made to encourage citizens to receive the vaccine as the process is hampered by controversies around the British jabs and vaccine skepticism.

Iraq has so far, officially, seen over 903,000 COVID-19 infections, from which more than 14,000 people have died. 

Editing by Joanne Stocker-Kelly