On 4 February, Armenia’s Health Ministry stated that it had completed negotiations with Russia on an agreement on the supply of Russian Sputnik V vaccine against Covid-19. 

“We are working on two sites for the procurement of vaccines: one of them is an international site where countries are negotiating with pharmaceutical companies to obtain vaccines on more favourable conditions. Bilateral negotiations are also underway with Russia and we are already completing the conclusion of an agreement and the first batch of Russian vaccine Sputnik V will soon arrive,” said the country’s Health Minister Anahit Avanesyan. 

However, Avanesyan declined to indicate the cost of the agreement with Russia and the number of vaccines to be delivered to Armenia, saying that these numbers would be made public once the agreement is signed. In response to various reports about the negative side effects of the vaccine, including deaths, she said that the ministry is monitoring these reports closely based on research from expert groups. At the same time, she reminded that the vaccination would not be compulsory.

Parallel to the purchase of the Russian vaccine, the Armenian government approved an economic response program and a preliminary action plan to tackle the pandemic. Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan said that the program deals with the 9th and 10th points of a roadmap, published by the country’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on 18 November. Point 9 deals with overcoming the Covid-19 pandemic and eliminating its consequences and point 10 deals with restoring the economic activity environment.

According to Avinyan, the economic response program indicates the priorities, goals and a list of measures, which the government will have to take until the end of the first quarter of 2021. The program focuses on three priorities - accelerating the recovery of economic activity, ensuring a trusting business and consumer environment and shaping a short-term economic agenda. There are 12 targeted actions and 14 assistance programs.

In Avinyan’s words, the government has to create conditions for the cultivation and processing of new agricultural crops with high added value, such as industrial hemp, as well as help renew a number of construction programs, including “District 33,” “Kond,” “Old Yerevan” and others. “Agriculture is one of those rare industries where there was 1.4% growth in 2020. We have increased our assistance programs 1.7-fold in 2020 and hope that this sector will grow in 2021 as well. The volume of subsidies to agriculture will not change,” he said.

Avinyan added that the ban on imports of Turkish goods is expected to give a fresh push to domestic production. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attached importance to the productive and targeted implementation of the plans to start commercial cannabis cultivation. He said also more attention should be paid to the mining sector and an audit of agricultural assistance programs must be conducted.

In the past 24 hours, Armenia reported 147 new cases of the virus and 11 deaths, bringing the total tally to 167, 568 cases and 3,107 deaths. 

Meanwhile in Georgia, the country’s Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia announced that the government would subsidise 80% of the interest rate on loans to the sports industry and private kindergartens. He also stressed that the government launched the bank loan subsidy programme for restaurants in December 2020, and about 2,000 restaurants applied for the programme, but “for some technical reasons” only 420 met the requirements and received the subsidy, giving the government the opportunity to subsidise kindergartens and the sports industry.

Gakharia also warned that organisations which violate the Covid-19 restrictions would no longer be eligible to receive support from state programmes and would not receive state subsidies. This statement came after 200 restaurants in the country announced that they plan to resume operations on 6 February despite the restrictions in place. Also, Gakharia said that fines would be doubled for those citizens who repeatedly violated the requirement to wear masks. He emphasised that tightening the rules “should reveal the responsibility of each citizen and organisation.” The Georgian government also eased the rules for the entry of Turkish citizens to the country. 

In the past 24 hours, Georgia reported 583 new cases of the virus and 19 deaths, bringing the total tally to 260,480 cases and 3,240 deaths.