Tunisia starts COVID-19 vaccination campaign

Tunisia launched a vaccination campaign today against the coronavirus pandemic, days after receiving the first batch of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, Anadolu Agency reports.

Tunisia received 30,000 doses of the Russian vaccine on Wednesday. The batch was part of a shipment of 500,000 doses the North African country is scheduled to get from Sputnik V.

Nurse Mehreziya al-Humami, 54, at El-Menzeh Hospital in the capital Tunis took the first shot.

“Inoculating the medical staff is a recognition of our efforts in combating the virus,” Al-Humami told Anadolu Agency.

The Tunisian Health Ministry said health workers and elders will be the first to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

READ: Tunisia faces calls to investigate officials’ free vaccine from UAE

Tunisia will get 137,000 doses of the British AstraZeneca next week and 94,600 doses of the US-German Pfizer-BioNTech by the end of the month as part of the global COVAX program aimed at providing vaccines to developing countries.

Tunisia aims to vaccinate 50 per cent of its 11-million population in the upcoming period.

The North African country has so far confirmed 240,617 virus infections, including 8,329 fatalities.