20,000 coronavirus vaccination doses to arrive in Syria’s northeast
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – On Thursday, the Health Board of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) revealed that allocation of coronavirus vaccination doses to the area will arrive in the few coming days.
AANES Health Board co-chair Jiwan Mustafa said that about 20,000 coronavirus vaccination doses will arrive in AANES within the coming days.
He told North Press, “203,000 vaccination doses have recently arrived in Syria, of which 10% is allocated to AANES.”
Last week, UN announced that the Syrian government received a shipment of the coronavirus vaccines through the global “COVAX” initiative, including about 200,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccines.
The total toll of coronavirus infections in AANES has come up to 15,796, including 571 deaths and 1,606 recoveries.
It is unfair to allocate only 10% of the vaccines to AANES, as between 35 and 40% of the total population of Syria lives there, according to Mustafa.
He added, “The doses that entered Syria are of the British AstraZeneca type, and they are to vaccinate the health crews fighting coronavirus.”
He pointed out that AANES’ allocation will arrive in the few coming days; however, distributing process needs time.
On Thursday morning, AANES extended the partial lockdown for a week in its areas of control starting on Friday.
The decision of the co-presidency of the AANES’s Executive Council provided that public facilities, markets, schools and universities, institutes, kindergartens, and cafes will be closed, and restaurants will be limited to deliveries only.
Moreover, wedding venues, funeral tents, places of worship, and all types of gatherings will be closed during the lockdown period.
Meanwhile, numbers of the coronavirus infections did not decrease; however, the peak is stabilizing, “so we will issue lenient decisions according to results of the PCR tests, number of cases, and the speed of the virus outbreak,” according to Jiwan Mustafa.