Qatar receives 48,000 doses ofAstraZeneca vaccine from COVAX

Tribune News Network Doha Qatar has received 48,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca as part of its self-financing agreement with COVAX. COVAX is a g...

Tribune News NetworkDohaQatar has received 48,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca as part of its self-financing agreement withCOVAX. COVAX is a global initiative co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi (the Vaccines Alliance) and the World Health Organization, which works with governments and manufacturers to accelerate the development, production and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines around the world.To date, one billion doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine have been released for supply to more than 170 countries and accounts for approximately two thirds of COVAX supply to date. Dr Abdullatif Al Khal, chair of the National Health Strategic Group on COVID-19 and head of Infectious Diseases at Hamad Medical Corporation, said: “Qatar continues to make good progress in the roll-out of its National COVID-19 Vaccination Program. This recent arrival of AstraZeneca vaccines will help boost Qatar’s supply and enable it to continue delivering its vaccination programme at pace. The vaccines will be administered to eligible members of Qatar’s population as part of the vaccination programme which is providing free vaccines to all citizens and residents. This will be an important step to support Qatar’s strategic reserves of vaccine to serve the community. Qatar is a strong supporter of COVAX and is contributing $20 million to GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, to aid its mission to accelerate global access to COVID-19 vaccines.Sameh Elfangary, country president for GCC and Pakistan at AstraZeneca, said: “I was delighted to see the arrival of further doses of COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca to Doha. This is wonderful news for the people of Qatar. On behalf of AstraZeneca, I would like to thank our partners at COVAX for making this possible. All partners are working round the clock to ensure that as many COVID-19 vaccines can get to as many people as soon as possible. This milestone further demonstrates the value of governments, industry and others working together to fight against the pandemic.”AstraZeneca is commited to supplying the vaccine broadly and equitably around the world at no profit during the pandemic period. The supply of the vaccine is estimated to have helped save tens of thousands of lives and to have significantly reduced hospitalisations.