Syria To Begin Vaccinating Health Care Workers Against Coronavirus Next Week - Minister

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th February, 2021) The Syrian Health Ministry will start providing medical workers in several provinces with COVID-19 vaccines beginning next week, state-run SANA news agency reported on Thursday, citing Health Minister Hassan Ghobash.

During a press conference, Ghobash said that the ministry obtained a shipment of vaccines from an unnamed "friendly country," according to SANA. The minister noted that the vaccine will be first given to those specialists working in quarantine centers, with priority given to the older age group.

The vaccine has been approved by the relevant health bodies and used in a number of countries, the news outlet said. It will be administrated in two doses with an interval of 21 days between the first and the second shots.

In early February, the Chinese embassy in Damascus said that it would send 150,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine to the middle Eastern nation as aid. This week, Syrian Ambassador to Moscow, Riad Haddad, told Sputnik that his country authorized Russia's Sputnik V and was prepared to import the coronavirus vaccine.

Before that, there were reports that Syria allegedly received deliveries of Sputnik V from the Israeli authorities, which agreed to finance them in exchange for the release of an Israeli woman held captive in Damascus.

As of Thursday, the country's health authorities have recorded 15,343 cases of COVID-19, including 1,008 fatalities.