Azerbaijan to receive 4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine by late Jan

By Ayya Lmahamad

Four million doses of COVID-19 vaccine will be delivered to Azerbaijan by the end of January and the country will start vaccinating its citizens no later than February, Chairman of the Parliament’s Committee on Labor and Social Policy Musa Guliyev has told local media.

Guliyev underlined that negotiations on the supply of vaccines against coronavirus are completed, and four million doses of the vaccine will be delivered to Azerbaijan by late January. 

“Like in the rest of the world, the vaccination will be provided to risk groups and will be free of charge,” he noted.

Moreover, Guliyev stated that work is underway to train medical personnel accordingly.

"Vaccination in Azerbaijan will be carried out with high quality in a short time, and soon the problem of coronavirus will be overcome."

Meanwhile, trainings on COVID-19 vaccination and management has kicked off in the educational center of a medical institution “Yeni Klinik”, Day.az has reported.

In one of such trainings, members of field teams who will carry out vaccination were explained the rules of transportation, storage and use of vaccines, providing medical care in case of allergic reactions, etc. In addition, participants were instructed on the work of the medical team, coordinated synchronous medical care, tactics for a rational approach in different situations.

A team of 40 doctors will participate every week in the trainings, which are conducted by highly professional specialists from Management of Medical Territorial Units.

Earlier, the Board Chairman of the Association for the Management of Medical Territorial Units Ramin Bayramli noted that Azerbaijan has chosen the same vaccine as Turkey and all arrangements have already been reached.

The vaccination in Azerbaijan will be voluntary and carried out at the expense of the state. Initially, it is planned to vaccinate healthcare workers and people over the age of 65. In addition, the vaccination itself will be done in two stages. After the first vaccination, citizens will be warned through an electronic system about the need to repeat the procedure.

It should be noted that Azerbaijan has already developed COVID-19 passport with a barcode that will be issued to those citizens who have been vaccinated, in case if any of the foreign countries request such a document.

Azerbaijan confirmed its first COVID-19 case on February 28. The country introduced a special quarantine regime on March 25, and has taken a number of measures to fight COVID-19 in the country.

Since the start of the pandemic, the country increased the number of laborites by eight times and built 10 new modern hospitals, including modular ones. In addition, the government invited doctors from five countries – Italy, China, Cuba, Russia and Turkey. In order to combat the pandemic and to provide financial support to citizens affected by the economic consequences of COVID-19 around $2.5 billion was allocated from the state budget. Financial support measures have covered about 5 million citizens of Azerbaijan, which is half of the country’s population.

As of January 7, Azerbaijan, the nation of 10 million, has registered 222,200 COVID-19 cases and 2,818 coronavirus-related deaths. Some 201,596 patients have recovered.

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Ayya Lmahamad is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @AyyaLmahamad

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