Tunisia starts COVID-19 vaccination; Jordan receives 1st shipment of AstraZeneca vaccine

CAIRO -- Tunisia on Saturday kicked off its national vaccination campaign against COVID-19 across the country. Meanwhile, Jordan announced the arrival of the first shipment of AstraZeneca vaccine.

"People not registered on the vaccination platform, Evax, will not be accepted," Tunisia's Minister of Health Faouzi Mehdi said, adding that the number of registered people on this platform is around 524,000.

The objective of the campaign in Tunisia is to vaccinate 50 percent of the population, according to a ministry statement.

Jordan on Saturday said it has received 144,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/SK Bioscience COVID-19 vaccine from COVAX, an international vaccine campaign co-led by the World Health Organization and its partners.

The second shipment of COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX is expected to arrive in Jordan in April, according to the Health Ministry.

Meanwhile, Jordan on Saturday reported 61 COVID-19 deaths and 4,144 confirmed cases, increasing the death toll to 5,285 and the tally to 469,000.

Turkey on Saturday reported 15,012 new COVID-19 infections, including 841 symptomatic patients, as the total number of positive cases in the country reached 2,866,012, according to its health ministry.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 65 to 29,421, while the total recoveries climbed to 2,685,560 after 15,287 more cases recovered in the last 24 hours.

In Iran, 7,802 new cases of infection with COVID-19 were identified over the past 24 hours, 485 of whom were hospitalized, Iran's Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said at her daily briefing.

And 73 more Iranians have died from the disease, bringing the death toll to 61,142, while 1,485,179 patients out of a total of 1,739,360 confirmed cases have recovered or been discharged from hospitals.

The Iraqi Ministry of Health reported on Saturday 4,054 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of nationwide infections to 754,318.

It also reported 23 new deaths, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 13,719, while the total recoveries in Iraq climbed by 4,086 to 681,828.

Lebanon registered 3,523 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections to 415,362, the Health Ministry reported. Meanwhile, the number of deaths from the virus went up by 56 to 5,334.

The Kuwaiti Health Ministry reported 1,211 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 208,460.

The ministry also announced nine more deaths, taking the death toll to 1,165, while the tally of recoveries rose by 1,365 to 192,782. A total of 14,513 coronavirus patients are receiving treatment.

In Morocco, 451 new COVID-19 cases were registered on Saturday, taking the total tally in the North African country to 488,632, the health ministry said in a statement.

The total number of recoveries from COVID-19 in Morocco increased to 475,457 after 519 new ones were added.

The death toll rose to 8,718 with two new fatalities during the last 24 hours, while 391 people are in intensive care units.

Algeria Saturday reported 135 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the North African country to 124,143.

The death toll from the virus rose to 3,034 after three new fatalities were added, said the Algerian Ministry of Health in a statement.

Meanwhile, 111 more patients recovered from the disease, bringing the total number of recoveries in the country to 79,843, the statement added.

Palestine on Saturday recorded 1,784 new COVID-19 cases, 27 more deaths, and 1,484 recoveries in the last 24 hours in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, according to the Health Ministry.

Currently, 170 COVID-19 patients are getting treatment in intensive care units of Palestinian hospitals, the ministry said.

Also on Saturday, Palestine announced a decision to extend the full lockdown on the West Bank for five more days, starting on March 15, amid increasing daily COVID-19 cases and deaths.

Over 11,000 people who arrived in Oman have taken institutional isolation as a precautionary measure.

Among the quarantined people in Oman, around 90 percent are expatriates. The number of hotels as the facilities of institutional quarantine reached 482.