126 organizations call on WHO to deliver coronavirus vaccine to Syria’s northeast
HASAKAH, Syria (North Press) – On Monday, 126 local organizations working in the field of civil society called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to “coordinate with civil society organizations or local authorities to ensure the access of coronavirus vaccine to civilians in northeast Syria.
The organizations expressed their concern that the vaccine would “turn into a political card in the hands of the Syrian regime.”
The local organizations appealed to WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Gerbesus, and WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, Dr. Ahmed al-Mandhari.
In mid-March, WHO announced that the first batch of coronavirus vaccines of the COVAX, will arrive in Syria within weeks.
It is expected that 90,000 doses of the vaccine will reach the AANES-held areas.
The organizations considered that allocating this number to a “geographical area that includes more than 5 million people” is astonishing.
Earlier, Akjemal Magtymova, head of Mission and WHO representative to Syria, said that vaccines would reach the Kurdish-held areas through Syria government.
The organizations pointed out that “placing these vaccines in the hands of the Syrian government, which does not control northeast of Syria, opens the door to many inquiries.”
The organizations feared that “the regime would exploit the matter in order to pass its policies and impose them on civilians.”
Earlier, a medical official in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria expressed to North Press their fears that the Syrian government would deprive the region’s residents of their vaccine allocations due to political disputes.
“The Syrian regime has proven that it does not have transparency in distributing aid, nor has it paid any attention to the outbreak of the virus in northeast Syria,” The organizations noted.
A previous North Press investigation concluded that the Qamishli airport, which is under the control of the Syrian government, has been turned into a corridor for bringing coronavirus to northeast Syrian regions.
“The distribution of vaccines through the regime means that the people who must be vaccinated, such as health workers and the elderly, will be the biggest losers,” the organizations added.