Azernews.Az

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan plans to start COVID-19 vaccination at the beginning of January 2021, the Board Chairman of the Association for the Management of Medical Territorial Units Ramin Bayramli has told to Anadolu Agency.

Bayramli noted that Azerbaijan has chosen the same vaccine as Turkey and all arrangements have already been reached.

"The citizens of Turkey and Azerbaijan will start vaccinating at the same time. We expect to start vaccination from the beginning of the year in Azerbaijan," he stated.

Earlier Bayramli underlined that the vaccination will be voluntary and carried out at the expense of the state. Initially, it is planned to vaccinate healthcare workers and people over the age of 65. In addition, the vaccination itself will be done in two stages. After the first vaccination, citizens will be warned through an electronic system about the need to repeat the procedure.

It should be noted that Azerbaijan has already developed COVID-19 passport with a barcode that will be issued to those citizens who have been vaccinated, in case if any of the foreign countries request such a document.

Azerbaijan confirmed its first COVID-19 case on February 28. The country introduced a special quarantine regime on March 25, and has taken a number of measures to fight COVID-19 in the country.

Since the start of pandemic, the country increased the number of laborites by eight times and built 10 new modern hospitals, including modular ones. In addition, the government invited doctors from five countries – Italy, China, Cuba, Russia and Turkey. In order to combat the pandemic and to provide financial support to citizens affected by the economic consequences of COVID-19 around $2.5 billion was allocated from the state budget. Financial support measures have covered about 5 million citizens of Azerbaijan, which is half of the country’s population.

As of December 29, Azerbaijan, the nation of 10 million, has registered 215,483 COVID-19 cases and 2,538 coronavirus-related deaths. Some 172,019 patients have recovered.

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Ayya Lmahamad is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @AyyaLmahamad

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