Iraq has signed a preliminary deal to receive 1.5 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine in early 2021, the health ministry said. The country has been among the hardest-hit in the Middle East, with more than 580,000 reported cases although numbers have dropped dramatically in recent weeks. Health ministry spokesman Seif al-Badr told state television late Monday that Iraq had “formally signed a preliminary deal with Pfizer… which will arrive in stages early next year”. “Iraq has reserved its share of these vaccines,” he said, with troops and the elderly prioritised for vacci…
