According to the optimistic forecast, Georgia will receive the coronavirus vaccine in spring 2021, the Deputy Minister of Health Tamar Gabunia told Georgian First Channel.

Gabunia noted that Georgia has already made a prepayment to purchase the vaccine from the Global Vaccine Alliance.

“Covax, which pioneered the development of the coronavirus vaccine, is an organization founded by the Global Vaccine Alliance. Also, we have the authority to choose the vaccine. In other words, we will be able to discuss the effectiveness of vaccines offered by different manufacturers and make a final decision taking into account the quality factors and the results,” stated Gabunia.

Gabunia pointed out that, at the first stage, the Ministry of Health will receive enough doses to vaccinate up to 20 per cent of the population.

“Now the country has to go through a preparatory period. We are working with the World Bank to implement the vaccine introduction process, ie the stages that the country has to go through are – first, the evaluation stage, how ready the country is to introduce the vaccine, we are talking about logistics processes as the vaccine requires ultra-low temperature. On top of that, staff training. We are working with all our international partners on all this. The World Health Organization has already issued some recommendations on who can be given preference for the vaccine, and, of course, we will follow them,” Gabunia said.