KRG mandates COVID-19 vaccines, no fully-vaccinated cases in hospital: minister

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government will eventually mandate that all citizens are vaccinated against COVID-19, the health minister said, adding that there are no cases of anyone with both doses of the vaccine being hospitalized with a coronavirus infection.

KRG Health Minister Saman Barzinji told Kurdistan 24 on Tuesday that, “if the region obtains enough doses of the vaccine and has a great success rate in the vaccination program, it will be mandatory in the future.”

Vaccines are already mandatory for public employees, he noted on the Hangawi Noyam program.

School teachers and other public employees are already required to be vaccinated under the latest government guidelines.

Five percent of over-18s in the Kurdistan Region have received both doses of one of the available vaccines – Sinopharm, AstraZeneca, or Pfizer-BioNTec – the minister said, adding that the vaccination rate has recently increased.

In order to achieve the target of mass vaccination, health authorities need more than 1.3 million doses, of which only 600,000 have been delivered so far, according to the minister.

The KRG has appealed to the international community for assistance in obtaining more doses. The autonomous region typically receives between 10 and 15 percent of vaccines donated to Iraq.

The Kurdistan Region has recently witnessed a spike in COVID-19 infections, mainly driven by the rapid spread of the Delta variant.