China is expected to deliver 150,000 doses of CoronaVac vaccine to Tajikistan within the next few days, Navrouz Jaffarov, the head of the Sanitary-and Epidemiological Service at the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population (MoHSPP), told Asia-Plus in an interview.
According to him, the decision to supply the CoronaVac vaccine to Tajikistan has been made at the level of the government of the two countries.
“The exact date of the delivery of the vaccine to Tajikistan is not yet known. But I will say that it will take place within the next few days. Of course, this will depend on the degree of preparation of the vaccine for delivery by the Chinese side and the provision of air transportation by the Tajik side,” Jaffarov said.
He further added that after the delivery of the Chinese coronavirus vaccine to Tajikistan, a COVID-19 vaccination will begin in other cities and districts of Tajikistan as well.
The Beijing-based biopharmaceutical company Sinovac is behind the CoronaVac vaccine.
Jaffarov also noted that the issue of the delivery of Russian Sputnik V vaccine (Gam-COVID-Vac) to Tajikistan is still under consideration at the level of the governments of the two countries.
To-date, the COVID-19 vaccination has begun only in Dushanbe. The COVID-19 vaccination reportedly began on March 23.
According to the Dushanbe mayor’s office, the COVID-19 vaccination for teachers and school staff of 16 secondary schools began in Dushanbe on April 7. The vaccination campaign will cover all 151 secondary schools and 137 kindergartens in the Tajik capital.
In all, 10,000 teachers and school staff as well as 30,000 childcare workers in Dushanbe will be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
Recall, India on March 8 delivered to Tajikistan 192,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, known as Covishield in India. The vaccines arrived as part of India's commitment made to the world to use India's vaccine production and delivery capacity to help all of the human fight the Covid-19 pandemic. Tajikistan expected to receive 624000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines by May through COVAX.
According to the Tajik health authorities, 20 percent of the population of Tajikistan are planned to be vaccinated with Astra-Zeneca. At first, the priority groups of the population will be vaccinated: those who aged above 70, health workers, customs officers and border guards. At the second stage, people aged above 60 will be vaccinated, and after them, those aged above 50 will be vaccinated. People will receive two doses of COVID-19 vaccine with a two-month interval.
The remaining 42.5 percent of the population will receive other vaccines that will be acquired by Tajikistan
Meanwhile, the BBC citied China's top disease control official as saying on April 10 that the efficacy of the country's Covid vaccines is low, in a rare admission of weakness.
In a press conference, Gao Fu added that China was considering mixing vaccines as a way of boosting efficacy. According to him, vaccines "don't have very high rates of protection". He suggested that the China was considering mixing Covid-19 vaccines, as a way of boosting efficacy.
China has reportedly developed four different vaccines approved for public use, though some trials abroad had suggested efficacy as low as 50%.
Mr. Gao later said his comments had been misinterpreted, telling state media Global Times that "protection rates of all vaccines in the world are sometimes high, and sometimes low," according to the BBC. "How to improve their efficacy is a question that needs to be considered by scientists around the world," he told the paper.
More than 100 million people in China have received at least one shot of the vaccine, the BBC reported on April 12, noting that so far, Sinovac's CoronaVac jab has only been fully authorized for use by China.
But Beijing is also offering its vaccines around the world and has already shipped millions of doses to a number of countries.
In Asia, the biggest takers are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Pakistan, while in the Americas, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador have also ordered millions of shot.
In Europe, Turkey and Ukraine have signed large contracts for CoronaVac.
The vaccine is thought to be particularly important for African countries where so far Zimbabwe, Somalia, Djibouti, Benin and Tunisia have received vaccines from China, according to the BBC.
