Afghanistan has received 500,000 doses of AztraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine from India, the first to arrive in the country, which is still waiting for emergency approval from the World Health Organisation (WHO) before it can use them, Reuters reports.

Ghulam Dastagir Nazari, head of the immunisation program at the health ministry said the doses would be stored in Kabul until the emergency authorisation was received, which he hoped would happen in a week. “The [WHO] certification process is underway and hopefully it will be done in a week and we will start the vaccination process in all 34 provinces."

The vaccines were produced by the Serum Institute of India, which is producing the AstraZenecca/Oxford University vaccine for mid and low-income countries.