Azerbaijan pays $15.5m to medical workers involved in fight against COVID-19
By Ayya Lmahamad
Azerbaijan’s State Agency for Compulsory Health Insurance has paid AZN 26.4 million ($15.5M) to medical workers involved in the fight against coronavirus during the period of February-April 2021.
The Agency also paid AZN 3.2 million ($1.8M) during this specified period to non-medical workers involved in the measures to combat COVID-19.
Moreover, medical workers of private medical institutions involved in measures to combat coronavirus infection were paid AZN 23,000 ($13,529).
Likewise, volunteers were paid bonuses in the amount of AZN 26,500 ($15,588), or more precisely AZN 250 (147) per month each.
It should be noted that the Agency continues to pay allowances for May.
The payment of urgent salary increases for medical workers involved in the fight against COVID-19 has been extended until August 1, by the decision of the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers.
Earlier, it was reported that the Azerbaijani government allocated $1.1bn from the 2020 budget to fight coronavirus infection.
Azerbaijan confirmed its first COVID-19 case on February 28, 2020.
Azerbaijan started vaccinating citizens using China’s Sinovac on January 18, Vaxzevria vaccine produced by AstraZeneca on May 3, Russia’s Sputnik V on May 18 and US-produced Pfizer on June 7. The country started offering COVID-19 vaccination to citizens aged over 18 from May 10. The nationwide vaccination is free and on a voluntary basis and is in line with the “Strategy of vaccination against COVID-19 in Azerbaijan for 2021-2022”.
Azerbaijan has registered 340,443 COVID-19 cases so far. Some 4,563,897 COVID-19 vaccines have been provided to the citizens to this date. The first dose of the vaccine was given to 2,654,076 citizens, and the second one to 1,909,821 citizens.
--
Ayya Lmahamad is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @AyyaLmahamad
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz