By Abdul Qadir Sediqi
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan on Sunday received 500,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine from India, the first to arrive in the country, still awaiting World Health Organization emergency clearance before use.
Ghulam Dastagir Nazari, head of the vaccination program at the health ministry, said the doses would be stored in Kabul until the emergency permit was received, which he hoped would happen within a week.
The vaccines are manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), which manufactures the AstraZenecca / Oxford University vaccine for middle- and low-income countries.
“The (WHO) certification process is underway and hopefully it will be done in a week and we will start vaccination in all 34 provinces,” Nazari said.
Health workers, members of the security force, teachers and government officials will first receive the vaccine, he said.
The Afghan government has already trained 1,000 people to deliver the vaccine out of the 3,000 needed to carry out the vaccination, he said.
Nazari said China also plans to send 200,000 doses of the vaccine.
Afghan health officials also said the international COVAX program, aimed at improving access to the COVID-19 vaccine for developing countries, would provide vaccines to cover 20% of the country’s 38 million inhabitants.
According to the Ministry of Health, Afghanistan had 55,335 cases of COVID-19 and 2,410 deaths due to the disease.
On December 31, the WHO listed Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use as it sought to accelerate vaccination in the developing world, leaving Western countries severely behind.
A regional WHO official told Reuters this week that they are investigating the production sites for the AstraZeneca vaccine and hope to make the decision on emergency use within a few weeks.
(Correct spelling in first paragraph after AstraZeneca, not AztraZeneca)
(Reporting by Abdul Qadir Sediqi; Writing by Charlotte Greenfield; Edited by Christian Schmollinger)