By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan ranks first among the CIS countries in terms of the COVID-19 vaccination rates, Trend has reported.

According to the statistics, Russia ranks second and Kazakhstan third by the number of people vaccinated against COVID-19.

A total of 8,169,473 Azerbaijani citizens have received COVID-19 vaccination as of September 23. The first dose of the vaccine was given to 4,668,637 citizens, and the second one to 3,500,836 citizens.

The country started vaccinating citizens using China’s Sinovac on January 18, Vaxzevria vaccine produced by AstraZeneca on May 3, Russia’s Sputnik V on May 18 and US-produced Pfizer on June 7. The country started offering COVID-19 vaccination to citizens aged over 18 from May 10. The nationwide vaccination is free and on a voluntary basis and is in line with the “Strategy of vaccination against COVID-19 in Azerbaijan for 2021-2022”.

At the same time, as of August 9, Azerbaijan started issuing vaccination exemption certificates for citizens with contraindications to coronavirus vaccines approved for use in the country.

The nationwide vaccination is free and on a voluntary basis and is in line with the “Strategy of vaccination against COVID-19 in Azerbaijan for 2021-2022”.

Azerbaijan confirmed its first COVID-19 case on February 28, 2020. The government allocated $1.1bn from the 2020 budget to fight the coronavirus infection.