Deputy Health Minister: vaccination may begin with AstraZeneca vaccine end of March

Deputy Health Minister Tamar Gabunia has responded to a statement issued by the Covid-19 vaccine platform Covax which explained the delay in the delivery of the vaccine as being due to the fact that vaccines were only sent to countries that met the criteria and Georgia was not among them.

• Covax: ‘Countries that met criteria received Covid-19 vaccination in February’

Gabunia said that the reason why Georgia had not received the vaccine is that the country received additional requirements from Pfizer.

Gabunia explained that the additional requirements have nothing to do with the country's technical readiness to receive the vaccine and are related to the financial reinsurance of liability.

This requires further negotiations, where all the conditions will be specified and only after that will the deal be signed. In order to clarify these terms a telephone consultation should have been  scheduled … [but] we are still waiting for the exact date of the phone call from Covax and Pfizer”, she said.

Gabunia said that the vaccination might start in Georgia with the AstraZeneca vaccine in the end of March and in the meantime, the Pfizer vaccine might appear in the country as well.

“The first dozes of AstraZeneca vaccine should be available in Georgia within the next two-three weeks”, Gabunia said.