Nearly seven million Iraqis have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. (File)
Baghdad:
On Saturday, Iraq said it had received 1.2 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine through its Covax sharing program, amid concerns about a fourth batch in the country.
Nearly seven million Iraqis have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, representing 17.5% of the country’s 40 million population, based on government figures.
Hampered by years of conflict, corruption and waste, Iraq’s health system has struggled to cope with the pandemic.
On Saturday, the Ministry of Health announced the arrival of a shipment of more than 1.2 million doses of “Pfizer’s anti-Covid vaccine through the Covax program and UNICEF”, the United Nations Children’s Fund.
“Iraq is still facing danger from the coronavirus pandemic,” ministry spokesman Saif al-Badr said on Thursday.
“We expect to enter the fourth wave, (and) it could be a new variant,” he told state broadcaster.
More than two million Iraqis have been infected with Covid and 23,628 people have died in Iraq since the outbreak of the pandemic, according to official figures.
Despite the increase in the number of people being injected, the Iraqi government has been unable to overcome general skepticism about vaccines and measures to prevent the spread of the virus.
There is a high level of public suspicion towards organizations in Iraq amid the spread of misinformation about the pandemic.
Covax was founded to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines, especially to low-income countries, and has delivered more than 80 million doses to 129 territories.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
