Algeria has launched its coronavirus vaccination campaign starting in the northern city of Blida, the epicentre of the country's Covid-19 outbreak in March 2020.
Algiers said it had received a first shipment of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine on Friday, having announced in late December it had ordered 500,000 doses from its long-time ally Moscow.
Health Minister Abderrahmane Benbouzid said the country was working to acquire sufficient vaccine doses to immunise all of Algeria's 44 million people, the official APS news agency reported.
The vaccination campaign will be carried out in “phases” across all regions, “without exception”, he said, cited by APS.
