Vaccination of Azerbaijani citizens over 18 begins

From May 10, 2021, all citizens of Azerbaijan over the age of 18 will be able to get vaccinated against coronavirus.

During the days of Ramadan, there will be no strict restrictions in the country, but all week long until the end of Ramadan public transport will be suspended.

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“I call on all citizens of Azerbaijan over the age of 18 to join the vaccination process”, Acting Minister of Health of Azerbaijan Teymur Musayev said in today’s briefing of the operational headquarters of the Cabinet of Ministers for the fight against coronavirus.

Vaccination can ensure a return to normal life in a short time: “But vaccination does not mean abandoning other precautions. Nowadays, wearing masks, hygiene and social distance are mandatory.”

There will be no strict restrictions

May 9-15 in Azerbaijan have been declared non-working days because of the Ramadan holiday. The introduction of strict restrictive measures these days was one of the issues that interested people before the long holidays. There were even those who demanded a lockdown announcement.

“A briefing by the headquarters is expected today. I demand a full lockdown on the holidays! As a citizen! As a journalist! As a person! We still feel the effects of the holidays due to Novruz. How many unfortunate people left our world because of our own experiments!

Complete lockdown!!! Only a hard and complete lockdown!”, well-known journalist Shahin Agayev wrote on his Facebook page.

But the acting Minister in a briefing noted that the only restriction on holidays will apply to public transport.

Teymur Musayev added that the vaccination process in the country is going well, and medical workers “are vaccinated by almost 90 percent. In the field of education, we are also approaching this figure. In the last two weeks, the number of patients occupying beds in hospitals has been decreasing.”

A whole week without buses

During the holidays, the only restriction the population of Azerbaijan will face will be the lack of public transport.

Buses have been closed on Saturdays and Sundays across the country from October 2020. In addition, since then, the main form of public transport in Baku, the metro, has stopped working.

Countrywide quarantine ends on June 1. If it is not renewed, from that date, all restrictions due to the pandemic should be lifted.

Half a million fully vaccinated

As of May 5, 2021, a total of 323,841 people have been infected in the country since the beginning of the pandemic, of which 298,949 people recovered, 4,617 died.

On January 18, 2021, vaccination against COVID-19 began in Azerbaijan. More than 1.56 million doses of the vaccine have been used so far. The number of those who received the first dose of the vaccine is 988,000, and 578,000 people were vaccinated with the second dose.

Currently, the country uses the Sinovac vaccine made in China. Azerbaijan also imported the AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccine. The country’s Ministry of Health has already approved these vaccines for use.

AstraZeneca will be used to vaccinate people over 60 years of age. There is no concrete decision on the Russian vaccine yet.