US to donate another 1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Afghanistan

The United States’ special envoy for Afghanistan Thomas West said Wednesday Washington will donate one million additional COVID-19 vaccine doses to Afghanistan.

US Special Representative Thomas West stated in a tweet that the assistance will be provided through COVAX, a worldwide initiative aimed at equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

“The United States has offered the people of Afghanistan one million additional COVID-19 vaccine doses through COVAX, bringing our total to 4.3 million doses and adding to $474 million in U.S. humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan this year.”

“We stand with the Afghan people,” he tweeted.

Jawid Hazhir, a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health, said: “COVAX had previously delivered a total of 168,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, and last Wednesday we received 800,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines from China. We distributed vaccines to a number of provinces last week and this week.”

Hazhir stated that as many as 2.5 million doses of vaccine have been administered since the collapse of the former government.

“Currently, the situation is stable; yesterday 804 samples were tested of which 12 positive cases and one death case were registered,” he added.