Georgia receives additional doses of AstraZeneca, Sinopharm and Sinovac

On July 5, Georgia is expected to resume the mass immunization process against coronavirus, which has been suspended in recent weeks due to a lack of vaccines. On top of that, the Booking.moh.gov.ge website, where citizens register for vaccinations, has been subjected to a cyberattack.

According to official information, both problems have been resolved.

On July 5, 5,000 doses of AstraZeneca, donated by the Austrian government, were delivered to Tbilisi, allergist-immunologist Bidzina Kulumbegov announced on his Facebook page.

On July 3, one million doses of Chinese vaccines – Sinopharm and Sinovac, also arrived in Georgia. Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said that another million doses of these vaccines will be delivered in the coming weeks. Pfizer will also begin its shipping to Georgia in July.

The work of the online portal has also been restored. By the morning of July 5, more than 14,000 people have registered for vaccination with Sinopharm.

AstraZeneca – problems with getting the second dose of vaccine will be solved

The main issue with getting vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine in Georgia is the unavailability of the second shots. Thousands of people received their first shot but are still waiting for the second one. The Ministry of Health previously reported that the available vaccine stock had become unusable “due to inappropriate storage conditions”.

However, thanks to a donation from Austria, everyone who has been waiting for 10-12 weeks after receiving the first AstraZeneca vaccination will receive a second dose in the coming days, Health Minister Yekaterina Tikaradze has stated. She also said that additional doses of the vaccine could come as a form of help from other countries.

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Pfizer expected to be phased in July

Pfizer vaccines will be introduced starting from July, and citizens from the age of 16 can register for vaccination with this drug, said Amiran Gamkrelidze, head of the National Center for Disease Control of Georgia.

Earlier, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said that a contract had already been signed and a million doses of Pfizer had been paid for. Also, according to him, Georgia hopes to receive several thousand doses of Pfizer as a form of aid from the United States.

Expected vaccination rate

The Georgian authorities expect that the country will reach 20,000 -25,000 vaccinations a day. Within a month, it is planned to vaccinate at least half a million people with the first dose of the anti-Covid vaccine. A total of about 350 teams with doctors are involved in the implementation of the program.

The vaccination process in Georgia began on March 15 and is proceeding at a very slow pace. At the moment, only about 2.6% of the population in Georgia is fully vaccinated.

According to the data of the last 7 days, Georgia ranks 17th in terms of mortality per million inhabitants, 147th – in terms of vaccinations.

Only 16 countries have higher mortality rates than Georgia: Paraguay, Namibia, Seychelles, Colombia, Argentina, Suriname, Uruguay, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Oman, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Russia, and Mongolia.

Georgia ranks 22nd in the world in terms of the number of new infections per million population.