Lack of Government funding hinders COVID-19 vaccine supplies to Iraq – Health Committee
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The absence of government funding has stalled the deliveries of the COVID-19 vaccine to Iraq, a member of the country's parliamentary health and environment committee, Faleh al-Zayadi, has said.
"The delay in supplies of the coronavirus vaccine is caused by the fact that the Iraqi government has not allocated the necessary funds," al-Zayadi said, as quoted by the state-run INA news agency, when broadcast on the local television.
The country's authorities intend to obtain the vaccine produced by several different manufacturers without relying on one or two firms, al-Zayadi added, not specifying the vaccine name.
In late December, the Iraqi drug authority granted an emergency vaccination campaign using the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Following the decision, the health ministry said that Baghdad plans to receive the first batch sometime in February, as the country has secured a preliminary import deal for 1.5 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
In January, the ministry also authorized the use of the Chinese vaccine from Sinopharm and the one from AstraZeneca.
According to the latest data from the health ministry, 623,072 cases of the coronavirus have been registered in the country, and 13,079 patients with COVID-19 have died. Iraqi Public Health Department Director General Riyad Abd Al-Amir on Wednesday told the Al-Iraqiya broadcaster that the disease's spread rate across the country has grown over the past three weeks. The official has not ruled out that a new COVID-19 strain might have entered the Arab nation.
