COVID-19: 100,000 vaccine doses arrive in Kurdistan Region each week

Mustafa Shilani 2021/09/23 17:55

A COVID-19 vaccination center in the Kurdistan Region’s capital province of Erbil. (Photo: Kurdistan 24)

Kurdistan Kurdistan COVID-19 Health ministry Vaccine WHO

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) health minister announced on Thursday that roughly 100,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine are shipped into the autonomous region of Iraq on a weekly basis, but added that vaccination numbers among workers in crucial roles like teachers are still low.

"There are a large number of education sector staff and teachers who have registered their names through the electronic platform to receive the vaccine but have not completed the process. Therefore, we call on all of them to get the vaccine as soon as possible," said Minister Saman Barznji in the joint press conference with the head of the World Health Organization's mission in Iraq, Ahmed Zouiten.

He added, "The Kurdistan Region receives 100,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine per week, and we have 11 special centers to store the Pfizer vaccine at a temperature of -80 degrees Celsius to vaccinate the largest number of citizens living outside the city centers."

Earlier in the day, Barznji said that approximately 15 percent of those who are eligible for COVID-19 vaccines across the four provinces of the Kurdistan Region have been fully vaccinated against the virus.

The World Health Organization said that day that it had delivered 14 tons of medical and preventive supplies to the KRG Ministry of Health, the fourth such shipment that will be distributed throughout the Kurdistan Region.

At the joint press conference, Barznji added, "Our goal is to vaccinate more than 3.2 million people, 20 percent of whom are over the age of 18 years and have received the first dose of the vaccine, plus 13 percent have received the second dose so far," stressing "the importance of receiving the vaccine to reduce risks and symptoms."

KRG health officials announced that they had recorded 1,236 new coronavirus infections and 19 related deaths over the past 24 hours. This raises total infections to date in the region to 323,712, with 5,764 of them proving fatal.