World Health Organization COVAX programme pledged $112 million for the coronavirus vaccines to reach 20% of Afghanistan’s population, MoPH indicated on Tuesday.
Deputy Health Minister, Waheed Majroh told the media, the whole transfer procedure of the vaccine would take about six months to reach the country.
WHO’s COVAX programme is an international scheme to get poor people in low-income countries vaccinated against COVID-19.
The programme aims at delivering two billion vaccine doses by the end of 2021, to cover 20% of vulnerable people in 91 poor countries.
According to Reuters, Afghanistan has also received a promise of acquiring 500,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from India.
This comes as Afghanistan battles with the spread of two diseases at once COVID-19 and Polio.
On Monday night President Ghani and Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft in a video conference discussed the polio issues in Afghanistan.
During the meeting, gates expressed his concerns about the surge of polio cases in the country, and due to the restrictions imposed by the Taliban 3.5 million children are deprived of polio vaccination across Afghanistan.
The restrictions are imposed in the areas controlled by the Taliban militants,
According to the statement “The two sides also held a comprehensive discussion on reforming the polio vaccine implementation process and increasing facilities in this regard,”.
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a funding organization, and polio eradication is one of their top priorities.
The organization contributes to the eradication of Polio disease around the world.
