Kuwait City: Despite the arrival of the third shipment of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on May 10, the doses are yet to be handed over to the Ministry of Health as the authentication documents and certificates have not yet been received.
On Tuesday, the ministry said in a statement that all the documents were supposed to be handed over on May 31 but due to a delay the vaccines will arrive until June 8. The shipment contains around 400,000 doses that were manufactured in Russia.
The ministry added that they are waiting for the remaining documents to be sent from the parent company, AstraZeneca, to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the shipment. In addition, they are in communication with the local agent.
Oxford-AstraZeneca in Kuwait
So far, Kuwait has received three shipments of the Oxford vaccine. The third batch arrived in February and contained 200,000 doses that arrived from the Serum Institute in India. The second batch, which was manufactured in Russia, arrived in early April and contained around 127,000 doses.
Amid a worldwide shortage and delay in shipments, last month the ministry decided to postpone the administering of the second dose.
Instead of receiving the shot 12-weeks after the first dose, the ministry announced that they will be delaying the second dose so that it is given between three to four months from the first jab.
The ministry has reiterated that there will be no side effects if the second dose is delayed.
Vaccine rollout
According to health officials, so far more than two million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in Kuwait.
Kuwait currently is administrating the Oxford vaccine as well as the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine.
