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WHO and Syria combine efforts to raise COVID-19 vaccine accessibility and uptake
9 February 2022, Damascus – In coordination with the national health authorities, WHO and partners continue to bridge vaccine inequity and increase vaccination rates in the Syrian Arab Republic, aiming for the 40% national COVID-19 vaccination target by April this year.
Although the total number of COVID-19 vaccines delivered to the Syria through the COVAX Facility and bilateral agreements were sufficient to cover 39% of the population as of 27 January 2022, the percentage of fully vaccinated Syrians remains as low as 5%.
Data registration at Damascus Mosque
“At this critical time, all stakeholders should team up to help build people’s confidence in vaccines,” said Dr Akjemal Magtymova, Head of Mission and WHO Representative in the Syrian Arab Republic. “With Omicron and other variants threatening lives, getting vaccinated and adhering to preventive measures is the only solution. Vaccines are safe, effective and free,” Dr Magtymova added.
With WHO supporting the operating costs of vaccine administration, vaccination is now offered in 962 fixed vaccination sites: 39 hospitals and 923 primary health care centres.
Implementing various strategies to scale up vaccination campaigns in the country, the national health authorities are supporting special teams to conduct vaccination at government institutions, universities, and schools. Syrians can also receive the vaccine whether or not they are pre-registered through an online platform.
With an additional 1075 vaccination teams in static locations and 391 mobile teams deployed in all governorates – a total of 5162 health care workers and over 420 supervisors – the teams are operating at maximum capacity. The WHO-supported mobile teams are providing vaccination services at shopping centres, mosques, churches, ministries, and lately at the Syrian parliament. Moreover, mobile clinics have been stationed close to Immigration Directorates throughout the country to ease access to vaccination services. These significant efforts have been implemented hand-in-hand with regular vaccination campaigns at health centres all over the country.
“I was hesitant and would come up with different reasons to avoid getting the vaccine. However, when the mobile teams started providing vaccination services at the mall, I could not argue anymore, especially when I observed how professionally the services were rendered,” said one of the employees at Cham City centre in Damascus after receiving the vaccine.
WHO efforts to address vaccine hesitancy among the population include training skilled communication personnel and availing them to respond to people’s fears about COVID-19 vaccines. Seventy health care workers who were recently trained on how to address vaccination concerns based on the regional package are now applying new skills on the ground to increase uptake.
Mobile team at Cham City centre
Furthermore, leading athletes, actors, writers and other influencers, as well as line ministries and agencies, support the vaccination campaign through their respective channels.
WHO calls on COVAX and donors to continue supporting the vaccination efforts in Syria and enabling a timely provision and administration of vaccines to curb the COVID-19 pandemic and protect the lives of millions of Syrians.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Gulalek Soltanova
External Relations/Communications Officer
WHO Syria Office
Damascus, Syrian Arab Republic
+963 953 888 477
COVAX supply update on COVID-19 vaccination in Syria, 9 February 2022
Summary
As of 5 February 2022, the total number of COVID-19 vaccines delivered to Syria through the COVAX Facility is 8 352 740, in addition to 2 713 640 doses received through bilateral agreements. These allocations are enough to cover 38% of the population. In the near future, over 3.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines are expected to be delivered through COVAX and will be sufficient to cover an additional 18.2% of the population.
In January 2021, the Ministry of Health received 151 200 doses of AstraZeneca/AZD1222 through COVAX donated by Japan, 1 million doses of Sinopharm donated by China, 368 640 doses of AstraZeneca by Oman, 302 400 doses of Johnson & Johnson donated by Spain, and 3 156 000 doses of Johnson & Johnson donated by Italy.
The last shipment received in northwest Syria was 832 800 doses of Johnson & Johnson donated by Italy on 23 December 2021.
The vaccines will be administered as part of the ongoing national vaccination campaign across the country.
Vaccination process
Vaccination activities continue across Syria at both 962 fixed health facilities and through 391 mobile medical teams in rural areas.
The Ministry of Health continues to exert efforts to make the vaccines available not only in designated health centres, but also in places where people visit the most. WHO supported mobile teams are offering vaccination services at shopping centres, mosques, churches, ministries, and lately at the Syrian parliament. In addition, mobile clinics have been stationed at the Directorate of Immigration throughout the country to ease access to vaccination services. These significant efforts have been implemented hand-in-hand with regular vaccination campaigns at health centres all over Syria.
In northeast Syria mobile teams were deployed starting from the second week of January 2022 to provide COVID-19 vaccination services, in addition to the 23 fixed teams in Al Hassakeh governorate. The vaccination process in Ar-Raqqa is ongoing through 2 fixed centres in Al-Raqqa city (Seif Al-Dawla), and Al-Tabaqa city (National Hospital). In eastern Deir-ez-Zor the vaccination campaign resumed through 14 mobile teams as of 17 January 2022 after being suspended for around 10 days pending the arrival of the new COVID-19 vaccine shipment.
Priority groups
As per the National Deployment and Vaccination Plan, the vaccination priority groups include all adults over 18 years of age with special emphasis on health care workers, the elderly, and people with co-morbidities.
According to the updated plan submitted on 2 February 2022, new targets have been set to cover 20% of the population by the end of the first quarter, 40% by the end of the second quarter and 70% by the end of 2022.
Challenges
The late arrival of vaccines makes it difficult for timely implementation of vaccination putting pressure on an already fragile health system. Overall vaccine hesitancy and lack of diversity of vaccine types delivered through COVAX along with the short expiry dates of some vaccine shipments create another challenge in achieving high vaccination rates. Vaccine uptake increased over the last quarter of 2021 due to intensified risk communication and community engagement efforts of the health authorities and partners.
Italy joins other European Union Member States to increase pledge of COVID-19 vaccines to Syria
DAMASCUS, 1 February 2022 – 3 996 000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Syria on 26 of January, donated by Italy through the COVAX Facility.
In May last year, as chair of the G20, Italy hosted the Global Health Summit alongside the European Commission, which saw many European countries pledge to share millions of vaccine doses to priority countries like Syria, boosting short-term supplies.
The European Union (EU) and its Member States are so far the biggest donor of COVID-19 vaccines in the world, having shared over 350 million doses for donation to countries, via the COVAX Facility (around 300 million) and bilaterally (over 45 million).
“Italy is donating doses to COVAX on top of the US$ 470 million it has pledged to the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment and this donation in particular will allow a large number of people in Syria to access vaccines now,” said Italian Charge d’Affaires a.i. Massimiliano D’Antuono. “Italy stands by the Syrian population and, in cooperation with the EU humanitarian aid, UNICEF and WHO, supports the efforts in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic and in general the consequences of the dire humanitarian situation across the country,” he continued.
The roll-out of the vaccines donated by Italy and the awareness campaign will be funded by EU humanitarian aid and implemented by WHO. The EU, in particular, is providing humanitarian support to WHO in Syria to help the health system deal with the ongoing pandemic and reach the target of 70% people being vaccinated by mid-2022. EU humanitarian funding allows for vaccine roll-out and the deployment of vaccination teams. Humanitarian aid is essential at a time when vulnerable Syrians and caregivers are not only threatened by COVID-19, but also by the consequences of continued conflict, economic decline and harsh winter conditions.
The Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the European Union to Syria Dan Stoenescu stated: "As part of our #TeamEurope humanitarian pledge to the Syrian people, the EU supports the vaccination efforts in Syria, where immunization against COVID-19 is lower than in other countries. The European Union is working hard with COVAX and vaccine manufacturers, with donors and other partners, to accelerate the delivery of doses worldwide, including in Syria. Our aim is to ensure that most of Syria's population is vaccinated by the end of this year. The generous donation of Italy is timely and will further help us reach this goal."
Vaccine coverage in Syria is among the lowest globally
“Vaccine supply to Syria has been slow. While we aimed to vaccinate 20% of the population by end of December 2021, the available vaccines by then were only enough to cover 13% of the population. This consignment generously donated by the Government of Italy will reach an additional 20% of the population with life-saving COVID-19 vaccines,” said Akjemal Magtymova, Head of Mission and WHO Representative in Syria. “Availability of vaccines is an important step in ensuring equitable vaccination, but so are vaccine administration and demand generation. We need to step up our concerted efforts to continue building public trust in COVID-19 vaccines to reach the national vaccination target of 40% by April this year and at least 70% by the end of 2022,” Dr Magtymova added.
The donated vaccines can be stored and transported using standard equipment for routine vaccines. This enables distribution to remote areas and provides an opportunity for the hardest-to-reach populations in the country to be protected with a single dose. Frontline workers, elderly, people with pre-existing conditions and eligible people continue to be prioritized for vaccination.
“This donation from the Government of Italy is incredibly timely and important in our fight against the pandemic. Unless we protect health workers and other frontline workers, health systems will continue to be overstretched and the most vulnerable women and children will lose access to life-saving services, jeopardizing years of progress and culminating in the poorest children falling behind,” said UNICEF Syria Representative Bo Viktor Nylund.
UNICEF and WHO will continue to support efforts to deliver vaccines safely through cold chain management, supporting vaccinators in fixed facilities and mobile teams, increasing testing and lab capacity to detect COVID-19 cases and prevent the further spread of the pandemic, and boosting public knowledge and confidence in vaccines.
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Notes to editors
Just over 2.2 million doses of vaccines against COVID-19 have been administered in Syria to date. As of 24 January 2022, only 5.1% of the total population have been fully vaccinated, most with two doses, and 10% have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
The numbers above do not include the figures from northwest of Syria. In the northwest, more than 287 000 people have received their first dose and nearly 146 500 people their second dose.
For more information, please contact:
Press and Information team of the EU Delegation to Syria,
Eva Hinds, UNICEF Syria,
Gulalek Soltanova, WHO Syria,
151 200 doses of COVID-19 vaccines donated by Japan arrive in Syria
DAMASCUS, 23 January 2022 – Syria has recently received 151 200 doses of COVID-19 vaccine donated by the Government of Japan through the COVAX Facility. The donation is part of the continuous efforts to protect people of Syria from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Government of Japan has provided approximately 150 000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines manufactured in Japan, through the COVAX Facility, to the people of Syria, as part of assistance by Japan to contribute to the prevention of the spread of COVID-19 in Syria. Japan will continue to provide various assistance in cooperation with relevant countries and international organizations towards the earliest convergence of COVID-19,” said Mr Akira Endo, Special Coordinator for Syria and Charge d’Affairs, Embassy of Japan in Syria.
Since the pandemic began in March 2020, Syria has reported a total of 50 502 confirmed cases of COVID-19 including 2926 deaths. The vaccine coverage in Syria is among the lowest in the world. Only 4.8% of the total population have been fully vaccinated to date. Ensuring a predictable and equitable distribution of the vaccines as well as enhancing their uptake will be critical in vaccinating and keeping more vulnerable Syrians safe.
“I am grateful to the Government of Japan, long-standing supporter of Syria, for this timely contribution of COVID-19 vaccines,” said Akjemal Magtymova, Head of Mission and WHO Representative in Syria. “Along with other impactful donations to the health sector, this batch will help save more lives as we curb the pandemic,” Dr Magtymova added.
WHO and UNICEF, together with partners, continue supporting efforts to provide safe and equitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines through microplanning, managing cold chain systems, training vaccinators, and promoting the safety and uptake of the vaccine.
“I would like to thank the Government of Japan for providing Syria these much-needed doses,” said UNICEF Syria Representative, Bo Viktor Nylund. “When we vaccinate more people, particularly healthcare workers, we can continue providing essential and lifesaving health services for Syrian children and their families,” he added.
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Notes to editor
Just over 2 million doses of vaccines against COVID-19 have been administered to date. Only 4.8% of the total population have been fully vaccinated, most with two doses, and 9.4% have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
The numbers above do not include the figures from northwest of Syria. In the northwest, more than 268 600 people have received their first dose and nearly 136 500 people their second one.
About UNICEF
UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, to build a better world for everyone. For more information about UNICEF and its work for children, visit www.unicef.org.
About WHO
The World Health Organization works with 194 Member States across six regions and from more than 150 offices to provide global leadership in public health, promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing. For more information about WHO and its health agenda, visit www.who.int.
For more information, please contact:
Eva Hinds
UNICEF Syria
+963 950 044 304
Gulalek Soltanova
+963 953 888 477
