Asian Development Bank to provide Georgia with a $ 15 million loan for the purchase of vaccines

The Asian Development Bank will provide Georgia with a $ 15 million loan for the purchase of vaccines.

According to the bank, the loan will help the National Vaccination Plan of Georgia to purchase and deliver about 700,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine, as well as syringes, safe containers and other items required for vaccination.

Assistance from the Asian Development Bank will make it possible to vaccinate more than 300,000 citizens or 8% of the total population of Georgia.

“The government’s vaccination program gives priority to healthcare workers, long-term care providers and caregivers, elderly and patients with chronic diseases, as well as primary health care providers”, the statement said.

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According to the Georgian government, its goal is to vaccinate 60% of the adult population, or 1.7 million people by the end of the year, although the vaccination process in the country has slowed down. Deputy Health Minister Tamar Gabunia said the decline in vaccination rates is alarming.

It should be noted that some Pfizer vaccines already imported into Georgia have a shelf life of up to December, and at this rate, vaccines could expire.

Paata Imnadze, deputy director of the National Center for Disease Control, said that unlike Pfizer, Sinopharm and Sinovak have a 2-3 year shelf life. According to him, there will be no shortage of vaccines in the country. Currently, 804,633 doses of Pfizer, 114,490 Sinovac, 241,679 Sinopharm and 43,883 doses of Astrazeneka are available in Georgia.

“The only sad thing is that we have vaccines that many countries need, but currently our population does not use them”, Paata Imnadze said.

As of September 24, 1,715073 vaccinations were carried out in Georgia:

963,663 people were vaccinated with 1 dose – 33.9% of the adult population;

Fully vaccinated 751,410 people – 26.3% of the adult population;

In September 23,12,778 people were vaccinated.