Georgia Starts COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout

On March 15, Georgia began administering the first shots of the COVID-19 vaccine, with healthcare workers the first in the line of immunization. Paata Imnadze, Deputy Head of the National Center for Disease Control was among the first in the county to receive the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Tbilisi Hospital for Infectious Diseases.

“It is finishing up the vaccination process, rather than the beginning, that is of utmost importance,” said Imnadze, Deputy Head of NCDC.  “I would like all of my colleagues to be in the vanguard of this work [of getting vaccinated], and honor the memory of our colleagues who died fighting COVID.”

Tamar Giorgadze, 73, NCDC worker, the first to request the immunization via a special registration system, also received the first jab. Similar to Imnadze, Giorgadze too got her dose publicly in front of the media.

Amiran Gamkrelidze, Head of NCDC, who supervised the process today, called on his colleagues to get vaccinated. Immunization “will end the pandemic in the country,” Gamkrelidze said.

In Kutaisi, western Georgia, surgeon Nika Vashakmadze was reportedly the first to get the AstraZeneca shot. In Batumi, a coastal city, Adjara’s health minister Nino Nizharadze has become among the first to receive the jab.

As of 11:00, March 15,  2,492 healthcare workers have signed up for vaccination, a modest share of around 70,000 medical workers eligible to receive their COVID-19 vaccines.

A total of 87 centers across the country have been arranged to administer the COVID rollout process. Vaccinations today began in 29 centers across the country. 58 other centers will begin the process in the coming days.

Georgia received the first batch of 43,200 British-Swedish AstraZeneca vaccine on March 13. Healthcare workers are the primary target group to receive the COVID-19 vaccines.

Georgian authorities have confirmed 159 new cases and 328 more recoveries of COVID-19 on March 15. The tally of total confirmed cases stands at 275,148, of which 268,565 have recovered and 3,650 died. The number of active cases stands to date is at 2,907.

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