BAKU, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- No severe side effects have been registered throughout ongoing mass vaccination against COVID-19 in Azerbaijan, local medical experts has said, endorsing the safety of the China-developed CoronaVac vaccine.
"Since the inoculation program was launched in Azerbaijan (on Jan. 18), all health workers, including our staff, have been vaccinated," said Asiman Hasanov, executive director of the Baku Health Center, recently.
Hasanov noted that no severe side effects has been reported through the past four weeks among the recipients, and some health care workers have received the second dose.
"We have received enough vaccination requests from different population groups. In our center we have vaccinated members of 23 embassies and 14 international organizations," he told local media.
Senior citizens, health workers, law-enforcement staff and military servicemen are among the first to be vaccinated by what Maisa Heybatova, an infectious disease specialist here at a modular hospital, described as the "absolutely safe" vaccine procured by Azerbaijan.
"Our doctors were also injected with CoronaVac. And we have not yet received any complaint," she said, adding that the jab, which is developed by Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac, has won trust from heath care workers.
Hande Harmanci, representative of the World Health Organization and head of its Azerbaijani branch, took the inoculation last Monday, local APA news agency reported.
Specialists decided that "the best vaccine for Azerbaijan is the vaccine of the Sinovac company" as it has passed clinical tests in many countries, Azerbaijani Health Minister Ogtay Shiraliyev said earlier.
According to the country's operational headquarters for COVID-19 prevention and control, Azerbaijan on Sunday registered 156 new COVID-19 cases, raising its total to 233,129. Enditem
