TIRANA, March 12 (Xinhua) -- The first batch of 38,400 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19 arrived at Tirana International Airport on Friday evening, Prime Minister Edi Rama announced via a video message.
Rama declared that the vaccination of teachers and university lecturers will start on Saturday.
The COVID-19 vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, has been suspended in a number of countries across Europe and Asia, following reports of blood clots in some vaccinated people.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that the Geneva-based UN health agency "systematically reviews safety signals, and is carefully assessing the current reports on the AstraZeneca vaccine."
But Silva Bino, head of infectious diseases at Albania's Public Health Institute, told local media on Friday that the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and this vaccine will be used even to vaccinate the citizens above 65.
A total of 23,635 health professionals and elder people have received the vaccine jab so far in Albania, according to the Health Ministry.
On Friday, the Health Ministry reported 681 new cases and 16 COVID-19-related deaths, raising the total tally of coronavirus cases in the country to 116,123, with 79,131 recoveries and 2,018 fatalities.
As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in an increasing number of countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.
Meanwhile, 263 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 81 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain, and the United States, according to information released by WHO on March 12. Enditem
