By Abdul Qadir Sediqi
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan on Sunday received 500,000 doses of India’s AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, the first to arrive in the country, which is still awaiting emergency approval from the World Health Organization to use them.
Ghulam Dastagir Nazari, head of the Ministry of Health’s immunization program, said the doses would be stored in Kabul until emergency authorization was received, which he hoped would happen in a week.
The vaccines were produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII), which is producing the AstraZenecca / Oxford University vaccine for low- and middle-income countries.
“The (WHO) certification process is underway and we expect it to be done in a week and we will start the vaccination process in all 34 provinces,” said Nazari.
Health workers, members of the security forces, teachers and government officials would receive the vaccine first, he said.
The Afghan government has already trained 1,000 people to deliver the vaccine of the 3,000 that will be needed to carry out its vaccination campaign, he said.
Nazari said that China also plans to send 200,000 doses of the vaccine.
Afghan health officials also said that the international COVAX program that aims to improve access to the COVID-19 vaccine for developing countries would provide vaccines to cover 20% of the country’s population of 38 million.
Afghanistan had 55,335 cases of COVID-19 and 2,410 deaths from the disease, according to the ministry of health.
WHO listed the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech for emergency use on December 31 as it sought to speed up vaccination in the developing world, which is long overdue in western countries.
A regional WHO official told Reuters this week that they were examining the production sites of the AstraZeneca vaccine and hoped to make the decision on emergency use within weeks.
(Corrects the spelling in the first paragraph for AstraZeneca, not AztraZeneca)
(Reporting by Abdul Qadir Sediqi; Writing by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)