Almost 40,000 people are vaccinated daily in Afghanistan after a vaccination campaign against coronavirus started mid-October in 14 of the country’s 32 provinces and the remaining provinces will begin administering the shots in the next 2 -3 days, UNICEF’s representative in Afghanistan Salam Al-Janabi told Sputnik.

“UNICEF and partners are supporting a massive Covid-19 vaccination campaign targeting people in urban locations. This campaign started on October 16 in 14 Provinces. It started in the Southern region a day later,” Al-Janabi said,

He further stated that “In the remaining provinces, it will start in the next 2 -3 days. Currently, almost 40,000 people are being vaccinated daily. This massive campaign will continue until we utilize 1.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson available in stock.”

Afghanistan has received about 5.25 million doses of different types of vaccines both through Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) facility and bilateral donations, he added.

“According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there have been 155,985 confirmed cases of Covid-19 with 7,257 deaths in Afghanistan. As of October 23, a total of 2,925,490 vaccine doses have been administered,” Sputnik reported citing the Al-Janabi as saying.

The Taliban took over Afghanistan in mid-August and the US military ended its 20 years of military presence in the country.