Specialists on the pace of vaccination in Azerbaijan

Baku/27.02.21/Turan: Azerbaijan has signed agreements with all manufacturers of vaccines against coronavirus, President Ilham Aliyev said on February 26 at a press conference for local and foreign journalists.

However, the head of state pointed out that, despite this, vaccines have not yet been received from a number of manufacturers. “We should have received the AstraZeneca vaccine long ago. But, have not received it yet. Pfizer and Moderna vaccine that should have come under the COVAX initiative have not been received yet. They do not even tell us when we get them. It is good that our Chinese partners are fulfilling their obligations,” Aliyev said.

On January 16, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan - Head of the Department of Economics and Policy of Innovative Development of the Presidential Administration Shahmar Movsumov said that part of the Chinese-made CoronaVac vaccine was imported to Azerbaijan. In total, it is planned to receive 4 million doses of vaccine from the regional office of the Azerbaijani manufacturer of CoronaVac Sinovac vaccine. Movsumov said Azerbaijan would import 4 million vaccines for 2 million people.

But if other manufacturers delay the delivery of the vaccine to Azerbaijan, will there be problems with vaccination in Azerbaijan? In this case, what steps does the government of Azerbaijan intend to take?

Malahat Ibrahimgizi, a member of the Milli Mejlis Health Committee, told Turan that all manufacturers would fulfill their contractual obligations for the supply of vaccines. Otherwise, the needs will be met with additional orders from the Chinese manufacturer, she said.

She noted that 10 million people live in Azerbaijan, of which about 2.7 million are children under 18 years of age. “Children are not yet vaccinated in any country. The most important goal is to vaccinate people who are currently at risk and they will all be vaccinated unequivocally. This is reflected in the "Strategy for vaccination against COVID-19 in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2021-2022". The number of people belonging to these risk groups is less than 2 million. We prevent great danger by vaccinating people at risk,” Ibrahimgizi said.

She stressed that in some countries, people over 65 have not yet been vaccinated. “We have already started vaccination of people over 50 years old in polyclinics. I want to say that the dose we will receive for 2 million people will cover people from risk groups, teachers, military men,” the MP said.

The member of the commission noted that vaccination is a laborious process. “In Germany, where there are 83 million people, 3 million people are currently vaccinated,” the parliamentarian said.

Vasif Ismail, Ph.D. in Medicine also believes that it takes a long time to vaccinate 4 million doses.

In his opinion, there is a more important issue than the scale and speed of vaccination. “We still don't know if the vaccine is really effective, and no country knows. Because vaccination against coronavirus is still in its early stages. If it does turn out that there is a real effect of vaccinations on the spread of the disease, then, of course, production will increase, vaccination policies will be tightened, and vaccinations will become more widespread. Now, the effectiveness of the vaccine is being tested,” Vasif Ismail said.

The expert noted that Azerbaijan has signed agreements with all vaccine manufacturers, so there is no risk that the country will be left without vaccines.

Azerbaijan has ordered 4 million doses of vaccine from the Chinese company Sinovac. They are designed to vaccinate 2 million people in a 10 million population. Another 2 million people could be vaccinated in the country, officials said.

The vaccination process in Azerbaijan began on January 18. At the initial stage, medical staff, people over 65 and police officers were involved in vaccination. According to the Ministry of Health, more than 200 thousand people have already been vaccinated. — 06D-