Damascus-SANA
As part of the Kovacs initiative to equitably make available COVID-19 vaccines globally, Syria obtained more than 5 million vaccine doses from some European Union countries, the latest of which was a batch from Italy, which it received on the 26th of last January.
The Italian Chargé d’Affairs, Massimiliano Dantono in Syria, said, according to a press release: “Italy has stood by the Syrian people and is particularly supportive of efforts aimed at addressing the pandemic,” noting that the European Union provides humanitarian support to the World Health Organization in Syria in order to help the health system in it deal with the virus. The pandemic is still going on.
Acting Chargé d'Affairs at the European Union Mission to Syria Dan Stunescu stated that the European Union is striving hard with the Kovacs initiative, vaccine manufacturers, donors and other companies to speed up the delivery of doses to all countries of the world, including Syria.
“The supply of vaccines to Syria is slow, and while we were aiming to vaccinate 20 percent of the population by the end of December 2021, the existing vaccines by that time were sufficient to cover only 13 percent of the population,” said Akjamal Makhtumova, head of mission and representative of the World Health Organization in Syria. She indicated that the Italian government's donation will contribute to reaching an additional 20 percent of the population with life-saving vaccines.
She added that the availability of vaccines is an important step in ensuring fair vaccination, and we need to intensify our concerted efforts to continue gaining people's confidence in the Covid 19 vaccine to achieve the national vaccination target of 40 percent by April of this year and at least 70 percent by the end of 2022.
It is noteworthy that according to figures issued by the European Union, until February 2022, Greece, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Finland and Spain had donated about 1.1 million doses of vaccine, while Italy donated about 4 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.