TASHKENT, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Uzbekistan will start the first stage of mass vaccination of its citizens against coronavirus beginning on April 1, a senior health official said Wednesday.
Uzbekistan will start using AstraZeneca vaccine to inoculate people aged over 60 and those with diseases, employees of the healthcare and education systems, as well as members of law enforcement bodies in the first place, Deputy Head of the Sanitary-Epidemiological Welfare and Public Health Service Nurmat Atabekov said.
The country last week received the first 660,000-dose batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine, provided for free under the COVAX initiative, and is now awaiting 1.5 million more doses.
In addition, Uzbekistan is in negotiation with Russia to get 1 million doses of Sputnik-V vaccine, said Atabekov.
Atabekov added that Uzbekistan will also use the vaccine developed by China's Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical Co., which is in a phase-3 trial in the Central Asian nation.
So far, Uzbekistan has registered 81,678 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 623 related deaths. Enditem
