Azernews.Az

By Ayya Lmahamad

Over half of Azerbaijan’s population might be fully vaccinated in the near future, the Health Ministry’s chief infectious disease specialist Tayyar Eyvazov has said.

Noting that the vaccination process in Azerbaijan has proceeded more rapidly in recent months, Eyvazov said that 40,000-60,000 people receive vaccination daily, according to the information provided by the Operational Headquarters of the Cabinet of Ministers.

“We see that more than five million people have already been vaccinated, of whom more than two million received two doses of vaccine,” he stated.

Highlighting the fact that the immunity is formed sometime after the second vaccination, he underlined that the vaccination of a large number of population - approximately 70-80 percent - is needed in order to stop the spread of the disease.

He emphasized that currently, the vast majority of those who are infected are unvaccinated.

“It is important to remember that there are a small number of people who have contraindications to vaccination. Thus, as we increase the number of people who are vaccinated, we protect the whole population.”

Azerbaijan confirmed its first COVID-19 case on February 28, 2020. The country introduced a special quarantine regime on March 25 and took a number of measures to fight COVID-19 in the country.

The country 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”.

Under the amendments made to the decision “On measures to extend the special regime and remove some restrictions” in the Cabinet of Minister briefing, as of September 1, residents over 18 will be required to have COVID-19 vaccines for use services of public catering establishments, hotels and large trade centers. COVID-19 passports were first applied as of May 31 for entry to sports and recreational centers and later for entry to concerts and weddings.

At the same time, as of August 9, Azerbaijan started issuing vaccination exemption certificates for citizens with contraindications to coronavirus vaccines approved for use in the country.

Azerbaijan has registered 352,926 COVID-19 cases so far. Some 5,418,754 COVID-19 vaccines have been provided to the citizens to this date. The first dose of the vaccine was given to 3,160,755 citizens, and the second one to 2,257,999 citizens.

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

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