On March 13, 2021 the first batch of 43, 200 doses of Swedish-British pharmaceutical company - AstraZeneca for COVID-19 vaccination arrived to Georgia through the COVAX Facility and under the support of WHO and UNICEF.
The Memorandum on the long-term collaboration in between the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC) and the UNICEF is the basis for the provision of routine vaccines. Through the UNICEF channel, the COVAX Facility allocated 129, 600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines for Georgia for the period of March-May and 29, 250 doses of Pfizer vaccines. After the mentioned quantity the rest of doses will be arrived in the second half of April.
The AstraZeneca vaccine has received emergency use authorization by the WHO, and in compliance with the Georgian legislation, the approval on import and use in the country has been released by the Ministry of Health and the National Regulatory Agency.
After the landing of the cargo and customs clearance procedures, the shipment was stocked at the NCDC central warehouse.
The distribution and full allocation of the vaccines will be finalized at the week-end (March 13-14). The police escort will be accompanying the vaccine vehicles for the safety transportation purposes.
The press conference, announcing this news, was held by the Minister and First Deputy Minister of IDPs from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs, Leadership of the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health, Heads of the WHO and UNICEF country offices.
At the press conference it was presented the citizen's booking registration guide for the monitoring of registration queues of vaccination. According to the National Vaccination Plan the first target group for vaccination - healthcare representatives will be registered. For the first priority groups the persons, not having the COVID-infected status for the last 120 day period, will be selected. According to the last data, totally 64, 051 persons from the healthcare sector have been registered on the e-portal, and amongst 54, 000 persons are subject to vaccination. After the coverage of the mentioned target groups, the following targets will be around 2, 000 persons from elderly and nursing homes and population above 75 year age.
The persons can book their visits starting from 12:00 March 13 at their preference time and facilities.
The vaccination process will be starting
from March 15, at the medical facilities selected by the Ministry. The first phase is planned for the medical personnel on regional and municipal levels.
Prior to the vaccination the medical personnel involved into the process had received the specialized trainings. The operators also received the specialized training on electronic module. The awareness raising campaign for the population has already started.