48,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine arrive in Qatar
Qatar yesterday received a batch of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, under a self-financing agreement with COVAX.
The batch contains 48,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
This is the third COVID-19 vaccine that will be administered to eligible population in Qatar under the country’s National COVID-19 Vaccination Program that had been providing the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.
Chair of the National Health Strategic Group on COVID-19 and Head of Infectious Diseases at Hamad Medical Corporation, Dr Abdullatif Al Khal commented, “Qatar continues to make good progress in the roll-out of its National COVID-19 Vaccination Program. This recent arrival of AstraZeneca vaccines will contribute to Qatar’s supply and enable it to continue delivering its vaccination program at pace.”
“The vaccines will be administered to eligible members of Qatar’s population as part of the vaccination program which is providing free vaccines to all citizens and residents,” he added.
According to Dr Al Khal, the arrival of the AstraZeneca vaccine “will be an important step to support Qatar’s strategic reserves of vaccine to serve the community.”
A strong supporter of COVAX, Qatar is contributing US$20 million to GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, to support its mission to amplify global access to COVID-19 vaccines.
AstraZeneca’s Country President for GCC and Pakistan, Sameh Elfangary commented, “I was delighted to see the arrival of further doses of COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca to Doha. This is wonderful news for the people of Qatar.
“On behalf of AstraZeneca, I would like to thank our partners at COVAX for making this possible. All partners are working round the clock to ensure that as many COVID-19 vaccines can get to as many people as soon as possible. This milestone further demonstrates the value of governments, industry and others working together to fight against the pandemic.”
Until now, at least 1 billion doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine have been provided to over 170 countries around the world, accounting to nearly two thirds of COVAX supply to date.
COVAX is a global initiative co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi (the Vaccines Alliance) and the World Health Organization that works with governments and manufacturers to speed up the development, production and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines across the globe.
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