The first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine reach Afghanistan from India

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan received 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine AztraZeneca from India on Sunday, the first to arrive in the country, which is still awaiting emergency approval from the World Health Organization before they can use them .

Ghulam Dastagir Nazari, head of the vaccination program at the ministry of health, said the doses would be stored in Kabul until the emergency authority receives, which they hoped would happen in a week.

The vaccines were issued by the Serum Institute of India (SII), which manufactures the AstraZenecca / Oxford University vaccine for middle- and low-income countries.

“The validation process (WHO) is ongoing and we hope it will be done in a week and we will start the vaccination process in all 34 areas,” Nazari said.

Health workers, members of the security force, teachers and government workers would receive the vaccine first, he said.

The Afghan government has already trained 1,000 people to deliver the vaccine out of the 3,000 needed to complete their vaccination campaign, he said.

Nazari said China also planned to send 200,000 doses of the vaccine.

Afghan health officials have also said the international COVAX program aimed at accessing the COVID-19 vaccine for developing countries would provide vaccines to cover 20% of the country’s 38 million population.

Afghanistan has received 55,335 cases of COVID-19 and 2,410 deaths from the disease, according to the health ministry.

The WHO lists Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use on 31 December as it sought to accelerate vaccination in the developing world, which is severely weakening western countries. .

A WHO regional official told Reuters this week that they were looking at the production sites for the AstraZeneca vaccine and hoped to make a decision on emergency use within weeks.