Kabul (AFP)
Afghanistan received half a million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Sunday provided by India, the first delivery of the Covid-19 vaccine to reach this country hard hit by the epidemic in 2020.
"We have received 500,000 doses of vaccine for patients with Covid-19 sent by the Indian government," said acting Afghan Minister of Health Wahid Majrooh at Kabul airport where he was receiving the delivery.
The vaccine, developed by Anglo-Swedish company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, is produced by the Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer.
This institute produces millions of doses of the AstraZenaca vaccine at high speed for India, neighboring countries and much of the developing world.
The doses will initially be administered to health workers and the elderly suffering from chronic diseases, the minister said.
The Afghan government plans to vaccinate 60% of the population in the long term and is working in particular with the World Bank and the European Union to obtain even more doses, said the minister.
The new coronavirus entered Afghanistan in February 2020, when thousands of migrants returned from Iran, at the time the country most affected by the epidemic in the region.
Over the following months, Afghanistan, already ravaged by decades of war, was severely affected by Covid-19, especially in Kabul.
In August 2020, a study by the Ministry of Health estimated at 10 million, or nearly a third of the population, the number of people infected with the coronavirus.
Official figures show 55,300 confirmed cases of contamination and 2,400 deaths.
The country of 32 million people has limited testing capacity, but in recent months the spread of the virus has declined.
© 2021 AFP