Over 29K doses of Pfizer arrive in Georgia
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Friday, March 26
29,250 doses of the US-German Pfizer/BioNtech coronavirus vaccine arrived in Georgia late Wednesday. This number, as officials say, is a sufficient dose for 14,750 people. Yesterday, the registration opened for people over 65 years of age who will now be allowed to choose between Pfizer and British AstraZeneca vaccines. Registration is available on booking.moh.gov.ge.
Vaccination with Pfizer will be available in Tbilisi, Batumi, and Kutaisi and will start on Tuesday, March 30. Pfizer vaccine is available at 4 clinics of Tbilisi: Republican Hospital, Bokeria clinic, Caucasus Medical Centre, and Amtel hospital, in two clinics of Kutaisi and Batumi Republican Hospital in the Adjara region.
Based on evidence from clinical trials, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is 95% effective at preventing laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 illness in people without evidence of the previous infection.
Vaccination is taking place only at clinics with intensive care units (ICUs) in Georgia. After the vaccination, all individuals will now have to stay at clinics for 45 minutes, instead of 30 minutes to be observed if there are any adverse effects. The decision to extend the period was made after the death of a nurse on March 19, which, according to preliminary estimates, was caused by anaphylactic shock after receiving the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine. The Minister of Health says that the Regulatory Agency should publish the initial conclusion of the investigation this week. This tragic fact has partly hampered the vaccination process in Georgia.
43,200 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine entered the country on March 13, while the vaccination of health workers started on March 15. As announced by Deputy Health Minister of Georgia Tamar Gabunia, Georgia will likely receive Chinese coronavirus vaccines Sinopharm next month. Gabunia said that besides, negotiations are underway to receive additional doses of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines.
According to a new rating by the British-Swedish concern AstraZeneca, the effectiveness of the coronavirus vaccine has been determined at 76%. According to the previous rating, the vaccine efficiency rate was 79%.
The reason for the redefinition of effectiveness, according to the company, became the conclusion of one of the independent American research organizations. In a statement released on March 3, the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) said AstraZeneca may have published outdated information about its vaccine test, which gives an "incomplete" picture of its effectiveness. The vaccine is not yet approved in the United States. The company AstraZeneca says it intends to apply in the coming weeks for a permit to use the US vaccine urgently.
However, the company reiterated that the vaccine, developed jointly with Oxford University, is 100% effective against severe and critical forms of the disease. In patients 65 years of age and older, the Astrazeneca vaccine was 85% effective against the coronavirus.
As for the topic of mass vaccination, Deputy Health Minister says universal registration for the coronavirus vaccine will begin in April. According to her, this does not mean that vaccination will start during this period.
"Massive, large-scale vaccination phases are planned in the 3rd-4th quarter, but before that, 30% of the population is the most active recipient of these vaccines," Gabunia said.
However, as mentioned before, the process was hampered and the attitudes towards vaccination vary among the public. As a recent NDI poll showed, 53% of the respondents do not plan to receive it. Health officials say it’ll be a shame if Georgia can’t use the limited amount of vaccines that the country has managed to acquire, repeating that mild complications are no reason for panic.
“Mild complications are characteristic of all vaccines against covid”, said Amiran Gamkrelidze, head of the National Center for Disease Control, at a briefing at the Ministry of Health, and listed the possible complications that can be detected after immunization.
"It is a temperature of up to 38.5 degrees, it can rarely be up to 40 degrees, as well as joint pain, muscle pain, redness at the injection site, hyperemia and pain, general weakness and fatigue for a day or two. This is mentioned in 40 to 60% of cases,” Gamkrelidze said.
According to him, to avoid various side effects, there is a questionnaire, which consists of more than 10 questions, and based on the answers given, the doctor decides whether the patient needs additional examination for immunization or not.
As for the most recent data as of March 25, Georgia has reported 399 new cases of coronavirus, 356 recoveries, and 10 deaths in the past 24 hours. Overall, 25,638 tests have been conducted around the country in this period. According to the data published on the government website stopcov.ge, the indicator of positivity is: daily - 1. 56%; last 7 days - 1. 9 2%; Last 14 days - 1. 5 8 %.
The country has had 279,027 cases of coronavirus since February 26, 2020. 271,278 patients have recovered, while 3,732 have died of the virus. Currently, 3,991 individuals remain infected with Covid-19.
