Syria Gets Vaccines Against the Coronavirus From ‘Friendly Country’

Syria has received vaccines against the coronavirus from a “friendly country, its health minister said on Thursday, the state-run Syrian news agency SANA reported. Dr. Hassan al-Ghobash did not name the country nor the manufacturer of the vaccine.

The announcement comes days after reports that Israel agreed to purchase $1 million worth of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine to give to Syria, as part of a Russia-brokered deal that sent an Israeli woman held in Syria back to Israel and saw the release of two Syrian shepherds and a Syrian woman being held in Israel.

Ghobash announced that front-line health care workers would begin receiving shots of the vaccine next week.