On 15 December, the health authorities in Azerbaijan prepared a vaccination strategy against Covid-19 without answering what vaccine would be used for that purpose. 

The Deputy Minister of Health of Azerbaijan Viktor Gasimov stated that vaccination in the country will be carried out free of charge. “The first to receive the vaccine will be those from the risk group, and medical workers are at the head of this list,” said Ramin Bayramli, head of the Azerbaijan Territorial Medical Subdivisions Management Association (TABIB). According to Bayramli, people over 65 are the second most important risk group. “In the first stage of vaccination, about 10 percent of the total population of Azerbaijan will be vaccinated,” Bayramli added. The second stage will cover a much larger portion of the republic’s inhabitants. The head of TABIB said that at this time Azerbaijan was offered to purchase several types of vaccines against Covid-19. “So far, only seven vaccines out of 30 existing are in the third phase of clinical trials. We are tracking data on five vaccines,” he said.

Bayramli also specified the data on the five potential vaccines for Azerbaijan. “One of them is BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, jointly prepared by Germany and the US. Its [maintenance requirement] is a little difficult. Healthcare facilities in most countries are not ready for it, [though] works are underway in this direction. The vaccine is maintained in -70 degrees and information on its effectiveness being 95% has already been published in articles. Another is Sputnik V vaccine, prepared in Gamaleya Institute of the Russian Federation. It should be kept at -20 degrees and effectiveness is reported to be 95%. Furthermore, a vaccine has been discovered by England and Swedish scientists at Oxford University together with AstraZeneca Company, which is kept at  -4 degrees, and its effectiveness is reported to be 70%. But research regarding the second dose of the vaccine has been started again. One of the ready vaccines is CoronaVac vaccine, prepared by Sinovac Company of China. Its maintenance temperature is simple, it is possible to keep it at  2-8 degree C [for] up to 3 years. According to the initial results, effectiveness of this vaccine is 95-97%,” he stated.

The World Health Organization (WHO) representatives also addressed the current Covid-19 situation in Azerbaijan. In a media briefing the WHO representative to Azerbaijan Hande Harmanci said that the number of infections was increasing in Azerbaijan. However, she highlighted that during the past 10 days, the infection has relatively stabilised with about 4000 daily cases.

Harmanci also presented the findings of the WHO expert visits of 12 medical facilities in Ganja, Tartar, Agdam, and Barda that were conducted on 8-12 December. She emphasised that the pandemic influenced abilities to provide main medical services in hospitals and that a shortage of medical workers was observed in some medical institutions in Azerbaijan.

In the past 24 hours, Azerbaijan recorded 4,077 new Covid-19 cases and 43 deaths bringing the total tally to 187,336 cases and 2,050 deaths.