Azernews.Az

By Ayya Lmahamad

The first research on the effectiveness of combining Sputnik V and AstraZeneca vaccines against COVID-19 is being completed in Azerbaijan and in a number of other countries, Russian Direct Investment Fund's Director Kirill Dmitriev has told local media.

The results of the study will be published in late July.

Stressing that Sputnik V was the first vaccine to be used for the joint research with AstraZeneca, Dmitriev said: "We think that research in Azerbaijan will show the high efficiency of this approach. The results can be amazing.”

Azerbaijan’s Health Ministry announced in February that the country would participate in clinical studies of the joint use of two vaccines - Sputnik V and a vaccine developed by AstraZeneca in cooperation with the Oxford University. The research program was expected to last six months in several countries.

Azerbaijan started vaccinating citizens using China’s Sinovac on January 18, Vaxzevria vaccine produced by AstraZeneca on May 3, Russia’s Sputnik V on May 18 and US-produced Pfizer on June 7. The country started offering COVID-19 vaccination to citizens aged over 18 from May 10.

The nationwide vaccination is free and on a voluntary basis and is in line with the “Strategy of vaccination against COVID-19 in Azerbaijan for 2021-2022”.

Azerbaijan has registered 337,323 COVID-19 cases so far. Some 4,108,514 COVID-19 vaccines have been provided to the citizens to this date. The first dose of the vaccine was given to 2,475,180 citizens, and the second one to 1,633,334 citizens.

It should be noted that Azerbaijan ranks second among the CIS countries for the number of vaccinated citizens per capita.

Azerbaijan confirmed its first COVID-19 case on February 28, 2020. The government allocated $1.1bn from the 2020 budget to fight the coronavirus infection.

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

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