Syria Is Yet to Receive COVID-19 Vaccine
The Claim
Syria has received its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines.
Emerging story
News circulating on social media claims that on Wednesday the Ministry of Health said that the Chinese vaccine had arrived in Syria.
According to the posts, the shipment is estimated to be in the thousands and will begin to be distributed to the various governorates with priority given to frontline health workers who work with direct contact with patients. The exact amount of vaccines is not mentioned.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar's investigation found this claim to be false. There is no report of the vaccine’s arrival in Syria on any of the Ministry of Health's official pages.
Moreover, Reuters reported that an official source at the Ministry has said that claims were “untrue”.
The source added that there will be an announcement from the Ministry on February 25th to provide clarifications.
This was further confirmed by the Ministry of Health’s official Facebook page with a post stating that Dr. Hassan Mohamed Alghabash, the Minister of Health, “will announce tomorrow morning about the latest update on coronavirus vaccine.”
They asserted that they would provide detailed clarification on the circulating claims.
Therefore the Misbar team classifies this news as fake until newer announcements are released. Currently, only Russia has sent the Sputnik V vaccine for Russians living in Syrian territory.
