Registration for the Chinese Sinovac vaccine starts today
By Nika Gamtsemlidze
Friday, May 21
Today, on May 21, at 12:00 registration on the Chinese Sinovac vaccine will start in Georgia. The vaccination process using Sinovac will begin on May 24.
According to the statement of the Ministry of Health of Georgia, just like Sinopharm, Sinovac is also made according to the traditional, inactivated virus method. The registration for the vaccine will be open for everyone above 18.
Two doses of the vaccine are required with an interval of 21 days. The registration will be possible on a special website, booking.moh.gov.ge, or by calling a special line, 1522.
According to the information of the Ministry, in total, there have been 260 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine delivered to different countries around the world. The vaccine does not have the WHO’s authorization yet.
According to the Georgian Health Ministry, the vaccine was assessed as positive by the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization. Georgia received 100,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine from China as a gift on April 29.
As for the WHO’s approval, the Sinovac vaccine has been waiting for a while. A special expert group of the organization, SAGE, asked for additional documentation from Sinovac on May 7. Another Chinese vaccine, Sinopharm, has already received WHO authorization.
Georgia is expecting to receive additional doses of different vaccines. According to the Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Garibashvili, there are very effective talks between Georgia and manufacturers of vaccines.
As PM said, Georgia is expecting additional vaccines from the Covax platform. He also noted that there are talks between the representatives of Pfizer to receive one million doses. “We are talking with manufacturers directly, including Novavax, Moderna, and so on,” added PM.
Also, Georgia is awaiting additional 500,000 doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine in the second half of June. In addition, according to Amiran Gamkrelidze, Georgia should receive 100,000 doses of Sinopharm with the help of the Red Cross, however, there is no specific date known yet.
Georgia started vaccination on March 15 with AstraZeneca, which is still available for people over 45. All the Pfizer doses in the country are used up, and registration for Sinopharm is only open for risk groups as of now.
According to the official information, as of yesterday, 101,415 people have received at least one dose of the vaccine, while 15,874 people have received both jabs.
