Press Release

Iraq receives the second delivery of COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX Facility

12 May 2021

The levels of COVID 19 infection rates in Iraq continue putting enormous pressure on hospitals, intensive care units, health workers, and country resources.

Baghdad – Despite the continued global shortage and limited production of COVID19 vaccines, Iraq received on 9th May, the second shipment of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine contracted through the COVAX Facility. The arrival of the second shipment of exactly 499,200 doses brought the total number of vaccines received by the Iraqi health authorities from COVAX to nearly one million so far.

“The epidemiological situation might have shown a slight improvement, but is not yet under control and the number of infections and fatalities remains of high concern in Iraq. Controlling this Pandemic is our common goal, and we need to do everything we can to reduce the transmission of the virus and the subsequent mortality in Iraq. The more people get vaccinated the more we move closer to controlling this pandemic in Iraq and around the world” said Dr. Ahmed Zouiten WHO Representative and Head of Mission in Iraq.

As of 10th May, a total of 441121 people have already received vaccination in the different governorates of Iraq, with an average of 15000 people vaccinated every day. “We need to fast-track procurement of more vaccines to ensure that at least 20% of the eligible population in Iraq is vaccinated by the end of the year 2021,” Dr Zouiten added.

The levels of COVID 19 infection rates in Iraq continue putting enormous pressure on hospitals, intensive care units, health workers, and country resources. While the preventive measures can effectively reduce transmission, their effectiveness still always depends on citizens’ adherence to these measures. This makes the vaccination a top nationwide goal to win the battle against the pandemic.

Since the start of the pandemic and as of 10 May, Iraq reported a total of 1,117,627 confirmed cases of COVID19 infection, and 15,800 related deaths, and have experienced 2 distinct waves of high periods of transmission, the last of which started in late January 2021 and is still ongoing with an average of 4000 to 5000 cases every day for the last few weeks.

END

Notes to Editors:

COVAX is a partnership between CEPI, Gavi, UNICEF and WHO.

Full COVAX News Note to Editors: https://www.who.int/initiatives/act-accelerator/covax/covax-news-note-to-editors

List of donor pledges to the Gavi COVAX AMC: https://www.gavi.org/sites/default/files/covid/covax/COVAX-AMC-Donors-Table.pdf

Funding tracker for the ACT Accelerator, which includes details of funding for COVAX: https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/access-to-covid-19-tools-tracker

Live updates on the COVAX vaccine roll-out globally: https://www.who.int/initiatives/act-accelerator/covax/covax-news-note-to-editors

Useful links: