PM Gakharia announced that 60% of the Georgian population will be vaccinated this year
By Veronika Malinboym
Friday, January 22
PM Gakharia said that Georgia will receive vaccines from the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility (Covax), to which country is a member. The Prime Minister said that six months ago, Georgia presented its plan to receive half a million vaccines in the nearest future, and the payment has already been made. “The main goal is to prepare the healthcare system for such a volume of vaccinations within a year,” Gakharia said.
Similar plans were announced earlier this month by the head of Georgia’s National Centre for Disease Control, Amiran Gamkrelidze, who said that by the end of this year, 3.7 million people will be vaccinated in the country. According to him, by vaccinating at least 60% of the population of Georgia, the country will be able to return to the normal way of living. He also added that people under the age of 18 will not be receiving vaccines yet, as such the age group has not yet been studied.
Vaccination of 60% of the overall population will amount to a total of ?65-170 million of the country’s budget, and the vaccines are expected to be received in the first quarter of 2021. As of right now, according to Health Minister Eraterine Tikaradze, Pfizer might be the first vaccine to arrive, and, in the long run, Georgia is considering the storage of AstraZeneca, which does not have to be kept at -70 degrees Celsius, and can be kept at 2-8 degrees instead.
According to Tikaradze, only the high-quality vaccines that have already acquired approval from the World Health Organization will be purchased for Georgian citizens. Similarly, Prime Minister Gakharia reinstated that while the negotiations with the anti-COVD-19 vaccine producers continue, the country is committed to only importing the vaccines that have been approved by the World Health Organization.