TIRANA, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Doctors and nurses of the Albanian Armed Forces will engage in the mass vaccination of population against COVID-19, Defense Minister Niko Peleshi said on Saturday.
Peleshi made the announcement from the southeastern city of Korca, where the vaccination for the health personnel started on Saturday. In the next two days, over 500 doctors, nurses and health care personnel across Korca district are expected to receive the vaccine.
The plan and intention of the government to vaccinate the entire population within 14 months, according to Peleshi, holds responsible every institution that has the opportunity to contribute to achieving this objective.
Albanian Armed Forces and the Defense Ministry, according to him, will engage all its resources and logistics, including nurses and doctors, to help in the intensive mass vaccination.
Currently, the vaccination campaign in Albania is ongoing in eight cities across the country and more than 12,000 people have vaccinated. The first to receive the vaccine are health professionals as well as the elderly over 80 years old in nursing houses, according to a protocol prepared by the Health Ministry.
The ministry reported 986 new COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths in the last 24 hours. The country's total number of confirmed cases now rose to 106,215, with 68,969 recoveries and 1,775 fatalities.
As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in some countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.
Meanwhile, 255 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 73 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, according to the latest information released by the World Health Organization. Enditem
