TASHKENT, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Uzbekistan has received 660,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the first batch of two million doses within the COVAX facility, the health ministry said in a press release Wednesday.
Under COVAX, an international vaccine campaign co-led by the World Health Organization and its partners, Uzbekistan will receive enough vaccines, syringes and safe disposal boxes to vaccinate 20 percent of the population by the end of the year, the ministry said.
The first stage of the mass vaccination campaign will cover 4.1 million people, it added.
The elderly and disabled persons, and those in healthcare, education as well as law enforcement will be vaccinated first.
Uzbekistan this month also authorized the use of a vaccine produced by China's Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Uzbekistan has registered a total of 80,858 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 622 related deaths. Enditem
