KRG deploys mobile COVID-19 vaccination teams amid rising infections

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is deploying mobile vaccination teams to places with high interactions to increase the vaccination rate among citizens as COVID-19 infections increase across the autonomous region, the KRG’s health minister announced on Monday. 

Nearly 30 teams will be deployed across the Kurdistan Region’s four provinces to provide COVID-19 jabs to citizens, Saman Barzinji, the KRG health minister, told Kurdistan 24. 

The teams will be stationed in “crowded places” and places that have poor ventilation, where the risk of transmission is always riskier, to encourage them to get vaccinated against the highly contagious disease, Barzinji said. 

The World Health Organization will “support and supervise” the campaign, he added.

He expects the teams to be deployed “this week.” 

Since it launched its vaccination drive in March 2021, the KRG has administered over one million doses of three different vaccines – AstraZeneca, Pfizer BioNTech, and Sinopharm. 

According to the latest tally from the health minister, over 400,000 people have received both doses of the Region, which accounts for 13.5% of the eligible population. 

Out of its over six million residents, only 3,255,985 people in the Kurdistan Region are eligible to receive jabs since the region has only vaccinated those over 18 years of age to date. 

According to the health official, the jabs are administered in 171 vaccination centers across the region. He also said there are plans to increase that number. 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020, the Kurdistan Region has recorded 350,000 infections. Out of these, 6,000 were fatal.