Deputy Health Minister: ‘Georgia to negotiate with EU, vaccine manufacturers to purchase 2 mln doses of COVID-19 vaccine’

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.

Gabunia said Covax is the main vaccine access platform for Georgia, but at the same time there are at least two other mechanisms the country is aiming to use, one of which is to work with the EU countries to receive the ‘doses of vaccine which they had already purchased, but is not necessary for them yet’.

Vaccines from EU countries may be purchased or donated to Georgia. Bilateral negotiations are also valid as the first quarter is difficult for each country. By the third or fourth quarter, volumes will increase and there may be a better chance for Georgia to get necessary doses of vaccines directly from manufacturers”, said Gabunia.

The first doses of Pfizer vaccine that will be administered to health workers are due to arrive in Georgia by late February.

Head of Georgia’s National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Amiran Gamkrelidze said Georgia will receive the AstraZeneca vaccine after Pfizer.

• 13 member states call on EU to help Georgia, other eastern neighbours receive COVID-19 vaccine soon

Earlier in January 2021 foreign ministers of 13 member states of the European Union have called on the European Commission ‘to set up a support mechanism’ for Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine) in order to deliver COVID-19 vaccines soon.