The national vaccination strategy is known - the government is considering 4 scenarios

By Nika Gamtsemlidze

Monday, January 25

The Ministry of Health estimates that the vaccination campaign will cost between GEL64 and 158 million

According to the plan, Georgia needs 3,979,327 doses of vaccine

There are four possible scenarios by which the Georgian government plans to conduct the vaccination process this year; one of them include the National Vaccination Strategy against COVID-19. Scenarios include procedures for purchasing vaccines from different manufacturers and distributing them to 60% of the population (1.7 million citizens).

The Ministry of Health estimates that the vaccination campaign will cost between GEL64 and 158 million - the difference of almost 100 million is due to the fact that it is not clear at this time which manufacturers will provide vaccines for Georgia. This is also indicated by a Bloomberg article, according to which Georgia has a contract for vaccines only enough for 186 thousand people, or 5% of the population.

According to the first scenario, the country imports 200,000 doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines, from the COVAX platform, the country gets AstraZeneca's 1,484,000 doses. Additional doses of the vaccine required to vaccinate 60 percent of Georgia's adult population will also be imported by the government from other sources. In total, the country gets 3,979,327 doses of the vaccine according to this scenario.

The second scenario shows that the country gets 200,000 doses of Moderna's vaccine, 1,484,400 from the COVAX platform, and remaining needed doses from other sources. In total, the country gets 3,979,327 doses.

The third scenario indicates that the country gets any vaccine that needs to be kept between -2-80 degrees in the amount of 200,000 doses. From the COVAX platform, Georgia gets 1,484,400 doses, and for the remaining doses, the country gets AstraZeneca's vaccine. The total amount is 3,979,327 in this scenario as well.

The fourth scenario indicates that the country only gets AstraZeneca's vaccine and uses it for everyone. The total amount is still 3,979,327 doses.

In total, the country needs a total of 3,979,327 doses to vaccinate 60% of the population. At the moment, Georgia has guaranteed 1,484,400 doses of vaccine from the COVAX platform in 2021. The financial resources are estimated for the total amount of vaccines that are needed for the country, assuming that Georgia is able to import an additional 2,494,927 doses from alternative sources.