29,250 doses of the US-German Pfizer/BioNtech coronavirus vaccine entered Georgia late yesterday.
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 previous infection.
Starting today, people over 65 years of age will be allowed to register for the Covid-19 vaccination in Georgia and make a choice between Pfizer and British AstraZeneca vaccines.
Vaccination with Pfizer will be available in four clinics of Tbilisi: Republican Hospital, Bokeria clinic, Caucasus Medical Centre and Amtel hospital, in two clinics of Kutaisi and in Batumi Republican Hospital in the Adjara region.
Individuals receiving either the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccines against Covid-19 will have to stay at clinics for 45 minutes, instead of 30 minutes to be observed if there are any adverse effects.
43,200 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine entered Georgia in March and vaccination has started.
Head of Georgia's National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Amiran Gamkrelidze has stated that a fifth wave of Covid-19 has already started in the country, noting that ‘vaccination is the solution.
Overall, 907,106 people are fully vaccinated in Georgia as of today and 1,013,507 people have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
However, the daily rate of vaccination has reached the lowest level in the country yesterday with only 2,260 individuals getting the jab.
The Georgian government aims to vaccinate 30,000 people daily in order to reach its vaccination goal of 60% of the country’s population by the end of this year.
Therefore, the vaccination marathon was launched yesterday involving about 50 villages in various regions of Georgia and aiming to raise awareness about the benefits of vaccination.
The government of Latvia has donated a total of 83,070 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to Georgia.
As of now, 322,903 doses of the Pfizer vaccine are available in Georgia.
However, Pfizer is the only vaccine which is available for individuals starting 16 years of age and older. Meanwhile, Georgian citizens over the age of 50, individuals with chronic diseases and high-risk groups will be given a third dose (booster shot) of the Covid-19 vaccine as well.
State and health officials keep on calling the citizens to wear face masks, maintain social distance, wash hands and get vaccinated amid the increasing number of the new cases of Covid-19, which has reached 5,076 over the last 24 hours in Georgia.
Georgia has reported 5,739 new cases of coronavirus, 2,082 recoveries and 36 deaths in the past 24 hours. The positivity rate has gone up to 10.15% of tested individuals for Covid-19 as of October 18 in comparison to 8.64% of the last two weeks.
In addition, 1,257 patients are in critical condition of which 270 are on artificial ventilation.
As of today, 29,935 individuals are in self-isolation and 61 individuals are under quarantine.
Since February 26, 2020 Georgia has had 670,552 cases of coronavirus, 616,937 recoveries and 9,546 deaths.
