The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria received 23,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine through the COVAX vaccine-sharing program.
The autonomous administration’s health commission, in coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO), began inoculating the medical staff in a hospital in Hasakah city.
Some 13,200 shots of the shipment were distributed in Hasakah, 4,000 in the eastern Deir Ezzor countryside and 6,000 in Raqqa.
An official at the al-Shaab Hospital in Hasakah said that frontline healthcare personnel and workers in humanitarian organizations will be the first to receive the vaccine shots.
The next vaccine shipment will go to the elderly and people with chronic diseases.
The health commission has recorded about 18,000 coronavirus cases in its areas under its control. It has also confirmed 723 deaths and 20 recoveries.
Commission co-chair Dr. Jiwan Mustafa said Syria has received 203,000 vaccine shots of the expected 1,020,000 doses.
“Only 10 percent of the amount was sent to the areas of the autonomous administration, which is unfair,” he stressed, noting that the residents there make up between 35 and 40 percent of Syria’s population.
More than four million people live in regions held by the autonomous administration, including over 120,000 displaced people and refugees, who live in 12 camps, he revealed.
“They need one million doses of the vaccine,” he said, stressing that the number of sent jabs is not enough.
