US pledges half a million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Iraq amid worsening pandemic

Halgurd Sherwani 2021/07/27 12:20

An Iraqi man is inoculated against the COVID-19 coronavirus at a vaccination center of Kufa, northeast of Najaf, July 25, 2021. (Photo: Ali Najafi/AFP)

Iraq USA Iraq COVID-19 Vaccines Joe Biden

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – In a matter of weeks, Iraq is set to receive half a million coronavirus vaccines after a pledge by the US government, at a time when Baghdad is grappling with a dangerous spike in the number of infections.

The announcement came as US President Joe Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi met at the White House on Monday as part of five days of strategic talks between the two countries.

Despite security relations dominating the latest round of talks, Washington and Baghdad have discussed cooperation in other areas, including health.

The 500,000 COVID-19 vaccines will arrive in Iraq “in a couple of weeks,” Biden told the Iraqi premier in front of reporters. He did not specify which manufacturer’s vaccines would be delivered, but the US president had already pledged to donate 80 million doses from the American stockpile to low-income countries, and the G-7 group of countries has promised a further billion Pfizer-BioNTech jabs.

The Kurdistan Region typically receives 10-15 percent of the vaccines delivered to Iraq.

Iraq is witnessing a worrying spike in daily infections across the country fueled by the spread of the Delta variant. On Monday, the country recorded more than 12,000 cases in a 24-hour period.

Iraq, including its autonomous Kurdistan Region, has administered more than a million and 300,0000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines. Total infections figure since the beginning of the pandemic in Iraq stand at more than one-and-a-half million, including 18,000 recorded deaths.