About 14,000 medical workers selected to be vaccinated at first stage for Covid-19 in Georgia
Vaccination will take place in the capital city of Tbilisi, the Black Sea resort town of Batumi and the western Georgian city of Kutaisi. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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About 14,000 individuals have been selected in Georgia to be vaccinated for coronavirus in the first stage and all of them are medical workers, announces Head of the National Disease Control Centre Amiran Gamkrelidze.
Vaccination will take place in the capital city of Tbilisi, the Black Sea resort town of Batumi and the western Georgian city of Kutaisi.
The first limited dose is for about 14,000 medical workers, including doctors, nurses, and junior medical workers. Vaccination is voluntary and we think to have a list of people who wish to be vaccinated by the time the vaccine comes in Georgia", said Gamkrelidze.
Deputy Health Minister Tamar Gabunia said that the Georgian State Regulation Agency for Medical Activities had selected nine institutions to vaccinate with Pfizer across the country.
She said that the process of selecting the institutions continues and the goal is to have about 15 facilities identified so that the vaccination process can be completed as soon as the vaccine arrives in the country.
Gamkrelidze said that training of 40 brigades will start tomorrow. Each brigade must vaccinate 42 people a day.
Georgia will receive about 180,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine in mid-March which will be given to the rest of the medical workers and then to the elderly and their caregivers.
After that people above 75 years, 65 years will be vaccinated in Georgia", said Gamkrelidze.
Gabunia said that the plan now is to vaccinate people over 18 years. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
Gabunia said that the Pfizer vaccine is recommended for individuals over 19 years of age, while AstraZeneca vaccine is recommended for individuals over 16 years of age. She added that the plan now is to vaccinate people over 18 years, including those who already recovered from Covid-19 infection.
No matter if you have already been infected with the virus or not - everyone should be vaccinated. But according to our protocol, the period from confirmation of Covid-19 to vaccination should be three months. We will not offer vaccination to people who were recovered from Covid-19 three months ago, they will have to get vaccinated somewhere in the second, third quarter of the year", Gabunia said.
Gabunia said that the rate of the population who wants to be vaccinated varies from 40%-47%.
Distrust of the vaccine is one of the first problems facing every country today. 40% is not a desirable figure. We will start the information campaign along with the vaccination process and expect more people will be optimistic about the vaccination", Gabunia said.
She said that the informative campaign will start in the end of February or in the first half of March.
Georgian Health Officials say that the country will be able to receive only 200,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine against coronavirus as of today as Georgia lacks refrigeration facilities to keep the vaccines in mandatory -80 degree conditions.
Head of Georgia’s National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Amiran Gamkrelidze said Georgia will receive the AstraZeneca vaccine after Pfizer.
The first doses of Pfizer vaccine that will be administered to health workers are due to arrive in Georgia by late February. Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia has made an announcement following his phone conversation with the World Health Organisation head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus earlier today.
The Georgian government expects to have vaccinated 60% of the country by the end of 2021, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia announced at today's government meeting. Gakharia said that high risk groups will be vaccinated at the first stage.
Tbilisi Infectious Disease Hospital will conduct a study on post-acute COVID-19 syndrome among individuals who have contracted the virus in the last two months.
Georgia has reported 544 new cases of coronavirus, 469 recoveries and 5 deaths in the past 24 hours.4,879 individuals remain infected with Covid-19 in Georgia as of today.18,244 tests have been conducted in the past 24 hours around the country. 11,615 of the 18,244 tests were rapid tests, while the remaining 6,629 were PCR tests. Georgia has had 263,601 cases of coronavirus since February 2020. 255,385 of the 263,601 individuals have recovered, while 3,311 others have died.
Georgia has reported 535 new cases of Covid-19 after conducting a total of 27,187 tests over the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, 757 people have recovered and seven others have died. As of now Georgia has confirmed a total of 265,200 cases of coronavirus, including 257,441 recoveries and 3,343 deaths, while 4,390 individuals remain infected.
Georgia will get 1.4 million doses of vaccine via the Covax (COVID-19 vaccines Global Access Facility) platform and will purchase the remaining two million doses through negotiations with EU countries and vaccine manufacturers, Deputy Health Minister of Georgia Tamar Gabunia said earlier today.
Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia and healthcare experts have discussed earlier today how the country is preparing for Covid-19 vaccination and following the national vaccination plan, which aims to vaccinate 60% of the population by the end of this year.
The 43,200 doses of AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine has arrived in Georgia this morning. UNICEF, which has supported the Government of Georgia in procuring the Covid-19 vaccines, has announced that the plane has already landed at Tbilisi International Airport.
On March 15, the first day when coronavirus vaccination started in Georgia, 668 people were vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine and 4,202 medical workers were registered for it, announces the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health.
The Labor Inspection Service of the Georgian Health Ministry has found that in the vast majority of Covid clinics salaries for doctors are unequally distributed while in some hospitals employees have not received vacation and medical leave payments in recent months.