The promises are still repeated more than a year after the discovery of the first case of the Corona virus in Libya, and those promises have not been fulfilled so far, despite the fact that many neighboring countries and the countries of the African continent began some time ago to conduct the necessary vaccinations for their people.
And after the death toll and injuries in Libya exceeded worrying numbers, given the population of Libya compared to the population of the countries surrounding Libya, which reached 158,251 cases, including 2,658 deaths, as of the date of preparing this report.
Contradictory statements by officials
It is striking that the statements of those responsible for confronting the Coronavirus have shown cclear contradictions for months about the dates and quantities of vaccines, at different dates, and the vaccines have not yet arrived in the country.
The last dates for the vaccination were reported by Badr Al-Din Al-Najjar, Director of the National Center for Disease Control, that 340,000 doses of the British “AstraZeneca” vaccine will arrive in Libya next April.
He explained that the first shipment of it, amounting to 96 thousand, will arrive through the “Kovacs” initiative, and that “UNICEF” promised to start the procedures for shipment of doses on the 29th of this March, and that there is no alternative plan now in case the committee withdraws from bringing the “AstraZeneca” vaccine, Al Najjar few days ago confirmed that the European “Kovacs” initiative had postponed delivery of the batch to 3 weeks and reduced it to 57 thousand doses, explaining that 5 million doses of the British “AstraZeneca” vaccine would arrive in Libya in succession within two weeks after confirmations from the new Minister of Health.
And last December, Al-Najjar said that Libya had contracted with the World Health Organization to buy two million 800 thousand doses of the Corona vaccine, worth 42 million dinars.
In November of last year, 2020, the head of the scientific advisory committee to confront Corona, Khalifa Al-Bakoush, said that they had already begun procedures for obtaining 6 thousand vaccines against the Corona virus, and that they had contracted with the “Kovacs” initiative to provide them with two million doses of the vaccine.
Last February, Al-Bakoush announced that the anti-Corona vaccines would arrive in early April, specifically on the fourth of the same month. For his part, a member of the advisory committee to confront Corona, Dr. Ali Al-Muqaddami, said last February that they had contracted with “Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna” to provide the vaccine with a total of 12 million doses with the first batch in March 2021.
On February 23, the head of the Supreme Committee for Vaccinations, Dr. Suleiman Busriwell, said that the first batch of anti-corona virus vaccines, estimated at about one million doses, will arrive in early March, and this batch includes 55 thousand doses of the “Pfizer” vaccine and more than 900 thousand doses of the “Oxford” vaccine. “.
In December of last year 2021, Libya, a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee to Combat Coronavirus, said that it had bought two million and 800 thousand doses of the Coronavirus vaccine and would receive it during the first quarter of the year 2021, the Scientific Committee to Confront Corona announced on February 7 that it had reserved 2.8 million doses of the Coronavirus vaccine. With two doses for 1.4 million citizens, the vaccination program will be implemented during the first quarter of this year 2021, after contacting the “Kovacs” initiative to provide the vaccine, and that we paid 9.6 million dollars to obtain the vaccine as a first payment.
For its part, the World Health Organization said at the beginning of this March, that Libya had missed the opportunity to obtain the first batch of Corona vaccine due to the failure of the Libyan authorities to provide the required documents on time.
Two days ago, during the visit of German Foreign Minister “Heiko Maas”, he said that Libya will receive 300 thousand doses of the vaccine against the Corona virus by the end of next May, with the initiative of “Kovacs”.
Vice President of the Presidential Council, Abdullah Al-Lafi, said the Corona vaccines will arrive in the coming days. Dbaiba cancels the specialized committees, and on the first of this March, and in his second decision, the head of the interim government, Abdul Hamid Dbaiba, canceled the decision of the Presidency Council of the Government of National Accord, to establish a committee to combat the Corona virus.
Neighboring countries started vaccinations early
In mid-March, the national campaign for vaccination against the Corona virus was launched in Tunisia, four days after the arrival of 30,000 doses of the Russian “Sputnik” vaccine. Also, in Algeria, last January, the vaccination campaign against the Corona virus, with the Russian “Sputnik” vaccine, was launched.
Also, last February, Egypt announced the start of the procedures for registering citizens to obtain the Coronavirus vaccine, about a month after the start of vaccinating medical teams against the virus.
