Uzbekistan to start vaccination against coronavirus on April 1

Uzbekistan is intending to start mass vaccination of the population against coronavirus (Covid-19) on April 1, a member of the staff for the fight against coronavirus, Nurmat Atabekov told on March 24. The government plans to vaccinate 4.1mn people in the country who are at risk for various indicators.

According to Atabekov, the first stage of vaccination will take place with the use of the Indian AstraZeneca vaccine. On March 17, Uzbekistan received 660,000 doses of this drug under the global COVAX program. At the rate of two doses per person, the government plans to vaccinate 330,000 people.

Vaccination will be carried out in a certain sequence: first, citizens aged 65-74 years, 75-84 years, 85 years and older; then health workers, citizens with chronic diseases (18-65 years); after that, school teachers, pre-school employees, military personnel and law enforcement officers.

At the same time, the government said that the vaccination would be carried out on a voluntary basis.

"In early April, we expect another 1.5mn doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. In addition, Uzbekistan will also purchase Russian Sputnik V, as well as a joint Chinese-Uzbek vaccine "ZF-UZ-VAC 2001", which is approved by the Chinese government for emergency use," Atabekov added.

He also commented on the situation with the increasing number of infected people: "We register approximately 110-120 new patients every day. Based on the 100 thousandth population, this is about 0.4%. However, there is no need to expand the additional number of beds in infectious diseases hospitals now. Only 1/4 of the hospitals are full. There are no grounds for increasing quarantine measures, but the requirements for the population to prevent infection remain."