Covid-19: Syria receives its first vaccines from the Covax program
WHO staff check a load of anti-Covid vaccines at Jdaydet Yabous, near the border post between Syria and Lebanon, Syria, April 21, 2021. via REUTERS - Rami Nader / UNICEF
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Syria received its first vaccines against the coronavirus as part of the Covax initiative allowing the distribution of vaccines all over the world.
203,000 doses delivered this Thursday in the province of Damascus and nearly 54,000 the day before in northwestern Syria.
The vaccination campaign will be able to begin.
Publicity
Read more
Officially, just over 50,000 people have contracted the coronavirus in Syria.
But health actors know these underestimated figures.
Hakan Bilgin is the president of Doctors of the World Turkey, an NGO present in Idleb and Afrin, in north-western Syria: "
We are seeing more and more cases linked to Covid in our centers," he
explains.
Many more people who have symptoms of pneumonia have respiratory problems.
So we are noticing that there are some very important medical warning signs on Idleb and Afrin.
Doctors of the World has decided to strengthen its screening capacities on site.
►
Read also: Covid-19: the Covax initiative seeking funding for more vaccines
The 53,800 doses received Wednesday for this part of the country are therefore few, but it is a start, greets Yasser Najeib, director of the Technical Committee of the Syrian Immunization Group.
This consortium of NGOs has been carrying out vaccination programs in northwestern Syria since 2017. It is he who received the Covax vaccines and who will lead this campaign in the 93 structures that he has created over the years.
“
In each vaccination center we have refrigerators to store vaccines.
We will use these refrigerators to also store vaccines against Covid-19,
says Yasser Najeib
.
But we have appointed new nurses who will receive specific training.
"
Health workers should be the primary beneficiaries of these vaccines.
The pace of the vaccination campaign will then depend on the next deliveries of
Covax
.
And in the Idleb region where the fighting continues and where rebel groups still control entire swathes of the territory, the arrival of vaccines is raising hope for the population.
►
To read also: Syria: "Almost 60% of the population wonders how they will eat tomorrow"
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Syria
Vaccines
Coronavirus