Deputy Minister of Health Tamar Gabunia made a statement after today’s government coordination meeting to explain why the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines have not yet been imported into Georgia.
According to Gabunia, the exact date Georgia will receive the vaccine will be known by the end of the week.
“This week, we received additional conditions for receiving the Pfizer vaccine. Another consultation between COVAX, Pfizer, and Georgia will take place at the end of the week, where all these details will be clarified and we will know exactly when we can expect to receive the promised 29,250 doses that Georgia is to receive through the COVAX platform in the first quarter of 2021.
“We were expecting these doses by the end of February, however, due to the additional requirements set by Pfizer, all countries that were to receive doses have experienced delays,” Gabunia noted. “This week, we will complete the negotiations and we hope to receive the expected doses from Pfizer in the first two weeks of March.”
The Deputy Minister noted that they are also in communication with AstraZeneca. The WHO has authorized AstraZeneca to vaccinate with Indian and Korean-made vaccines, and it is expected that the region will have access to both.
“Thus, in the next few days, it will be clarified what amount of AstraZeneca vaccine we will receive through the COVAX platform. Preliminary expectations are up to 315,000 doses, but this count is yet to be clarified,” Gabunia said.
By Ketevan Skhirtladze
