Cairo, 31 March 2021 – Syria, as one of the 92 countries eligible for COVID-19 vaccines under the COVAX Facility’s Advanced Market Commitment, stands ready to receive the first batch of the Astra Zeneca vaccine produced by the Serum Institute in India (AZ SII). This first batch is dedicated for 3% of the population and targets high-risk groups, prioritizing health workers and people over 55 years of age with co-morbidities.
Under the COVAX Facility, in the first phase of COVID-19 vaccination, Syria is expected to receive 912 000 doses of the vaccine, including for northeast Syria, which accounts for 11% of the total Syrian population. An additional 224 000 doses of the vaccine will be allocated to northwest Syria.
“Allocation of the vaccines and its distribution across Syria is planned based on the latest population estimates by the UN OCHA Population Task Force. Our target is to vaccinate 20% of the population by the end of 2021, in addition to the health workers who will be vaccinated in the first phase of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign, and the elderly, people with co-morbidities, schoolteachers and other essential workers in the second phase,” said Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO’s Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean.
Hospitals and public health care centres will be used as service delivery points to provide vaccinations, along with mobile teams all over the country. Services will be provided by trained hospital teams and routine immunization personnel. Implementation across northeast (including camps and non-formal settlements) and northwest Syria will follow the current experiences of the Expanded Programme on Immunization through fixed facilities (hospitals and primary health care centres) and mobile teams.
After COVID-19 vaccine introduction, 200 independent monitors will be deployed by WHO and UNICEF in all governorates to evaluate the performance of the teams and the vaccination coverage rates.
It should be noted that Syria was expecting the vaccines in April this year. Regretfully, the production of AZ SII vaccines was insufficient to meet the global demand resulting in delays in making COVID-19 vaccine available in Syria. WHO together with its partners continues combating the spread of COVID-19 in Syria and making all possible efforts to secure vaccines.
16 March 2021 – The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean will be organizing a webinar to launch the Report of the Regional Commission on Social Determinants of Health on Wednesday, 31 March 2021 at 11:00-13:00 (Cairo time, UTC+2).
In this webinar, the Report of the Commission "Build back fairer: achieving health equity in the Eastern Mediterranean Region will be presented followed by a high-level panel discussion on promoting health equity in the Region. The Commission was established by the WHO Regional Director Dr Ahmed AlL-Mandhari in November 2019 to review health inequities and issue recommendations to address these inequities in the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region. It has been jointly developed by the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research and the Institute of Health Equity at University College London.
The Commission’s report is based on an in-depth analysis of structural issues, such as conflict and climate change, and the conditions of daily life in areas such as education and work, which impact the status of health equity in the Region. The report is expected to provide an evidence base and guidance on the Region’s progress in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals in alignment with WHO’s Thirteenth General Programme of Work and the regional Vision 2023.
The agenda and list of speakers are outlined below.
Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean will present the opening remarks.
Professor Sir Michael Marmot, Chair of the Regional Commission on Social Determinants of Health will share some reflections on the report.
Observations will be provided by the following speakers:
- H.E. Dr Ahmed Bin Mohammed Al-Saidi, Minister of Health, Oman
- H.E. Dr Hala Zayed, Minister of Health and Population, Egypt, Chair of 67th session of Regional Committee (TBC)
- Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization
- Mr Ted Chaiban, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa
Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist, WHO, will present some concluding remarks.
From left to right: Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus; Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari; Professor Sir Michael Marmot; H.E. Dr Hala Zayed; H.E. Dr Ahmed Bin Mohammed Al-Saidi; Mr Ted Chaiban; Dr Soumya Swaminathan
The webinar is taking place ahead of World Health Day 2021, the theme of which is health equity.
Related links
For further information, please contact:
Health Promotion and Social Determinants of Health Programme
Division of Healthier Populations
WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean
3 February 2021 – A HIV outbreak in Larkana, Sindh province, Pakistan, in April 2019 resulted in 803 people contracting HIV, as reported in June 2019. The outbreak investigation conducted by WHO and international partners showed that the outbreak was the result of poor infection, prevention control measures, risky injection practices and inadequate waste management.
With the generous support of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief), funds were raised to respond to the outbreak and establish a provincial wide infection, prevention and control programme, with special attention on the Larkana district. Project activities started in January 2020 coinciding with the emergence of COVID-19, which served to highlight the importance of effective infection, prevention and control measures in combating infectious diseases.
Since January 2020, extensive progress has been made. An IPC unit was established at the provincial level through ministerial decrees to coordinate activities, and federal guidelines on infection, prevention and control measures were released in April 2020. Activities focused on enhancing the capacity of 40 provincial master trainers who received repeated extensive didactic and practical training on infection, prevention and control practices by WHO and the WHO Collaborating Centre for Infection Prevention and Control and Anti-Microbial Resistance in Saudi Arabia. The master trainers will cascade the training to 132 staff in 38 hospitals in Sindh province until March 2021. In the 6 hospitals in Larkana, which was the epicentre of the HIV outbreak, full time hospital teams and committees have been assigned and trained to develop and implement infection, prevention and control policies and procedures. Essential supplies for effective infection, prevention and control were provided. As the end of 2020, quality improvements were documented in Larkana hospitals where the average score for infection, prevention and control assessed by WHO increased from 73/800 to 340/800. Improvements were observed mainly in injection safety, waste management procedures, reprocessing of instruments, and environmental cleaning. Repeated auditing of infection, prevention and control practices will be conducted on a regular basis to identify remaining gaps and enhance capacities and implementation of effective measures.
