Azernews.Az

By Trend

Azerbaijan is one of the first countries which mobilized the global efforts in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and voiced a number of important initiatives in this sphere, Azerbaijani MP Jeyhun Mammadov told Trend on March 27.

“A special session of the UN General Assembly dedicated to the fight against the pandemic was held at the level of heads of state and government in December 2020 on the initiative of the Azerbaijani president,” Mammadov added.

“Moreover, Azerbaijan has rendered humanitarian assistance to 30 countries to combat the coronavirus pandemic,” the MP said. “WHO has repeatedly praised these efforts of Azerbaijan.”

“Azerbaijan supported all the initiatives put forward to combat the pandemic and was also one of the first countries which joined and supported the international COVAX initiative, created for the fair distribution and availability of vaccines,” Mammadov added.

"In accordance with the agreement, COVAX was to transfer vaccines against coronavirus to the Azerbaijani side,” the MP said. “However, much time passed, but this platform did not provide Azerbaijan with vaccines. It has recently become known that COVAX will deliver less than promised, without even naming the delivery time. For some reason, COVAX provided friendly Georgia with the first batch of vaccines.”

“This is a frivolous attitude of COVAX that undermines the attitude towards this platform,” Mammadov said. “Obviously, double standards are applied in such important issues as health care and vaccination. This attitude towards Azerbaijan is unacceptable. COVAX applies double standards, demonstrates a frivolous approach and does not fulfill its promises."

“Despite the promises of COVAX, Azerbaijan initially correctly and reliably built its activity by acquiring the required number of doses of high-quality vaccines from China,” the MP said.

"The vaccination process is underway in Azerbaijan and more than 510,000 people have already been vaccinated," Mammadov said.