Syrian President Bashar al-Assad ‘vaccinated with Russian Sputnik Covid jab’

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails

Sign up to our free breaking news emails

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been vaccinated using Russia’s Sputnik V Covid jab, it has been reported.

Russian news agency interfax said Mr Assad had been inoculated on Thursday.

Riad Haddad, Syria's ambassador to Moscow, told reporters the president had got the injection.

Last month, a Covid-19 vaccine campaign was launched in Idlib, Syria's only remaining rebel-held enclave.

Nizar Fattouh, a nurse in Ibn Sina Hospital in Idlib city, was one of the first to benefit from 53,800 UN-secured AstraZeneca jabs delivered to northwest Syria through Turkey on 21 April.

Idlib health official Yasser Najib said at the time the jabs were provided through the COVAX program for the world’s poor and developing nations.

The Syrian government said it has secured 200,000 vaccines through the Covax programme but also has obtained doses from China, Russia and the United Arab Emirates.

A limited inoculation campaign had also begun in government-controlled areas that are experiencing increased pressure on hospitals.

The World Health Organization has said the vaccination campaign in Syria aims to inoculate 20 per cent of the total population residing in the country by the end of the year.

According to Johns Hopkins University data, Syria has recorded 24,559 Covid-19 cases.

Officials have logged 1,778 deaths, although analysts say the true figures are likely to be higher due to a lack of reporting in the war-torn country.

Additional reporting by Associated Press