ArmInfo. Armenia will allocate 3 billion 459 million drams for the purchase of the Chinese Sinopharm and the American-German Pfizer / BioNTech vaccines against the coronavirus.
With these funds, Armenia will also purchase 500 thousand doses of the coronavirus vaccine, as a result of which the share of vaccinated citizens in the total number will increase by 10% (500 thousand doses per 250 thousand people, in 2 doses).
Acting Head of the Ministry of Health Anahit Avanesyan said that as of July 29, 163 people were vaccinated against coronavirus in Armenia. As of today, Russian Sputnik V, British-Swedish AstraZeneca and Chinese CoronaVac are available in Armenia without any restrictions.
To note, the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech was the first drug officially approved by the World Health Organization. Research by WHO has shown that the vaccine meets the criteria for safety and efficacy. Already in May of this year, the WHO has added the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine for COVID-19 to the list of drugs for use in emergency situations, allowing it to be used to vaccinate people aged 18 and older on a schedule of two doses, three to four weeks apart. It was noted that the effectiveness of this Chinese vaccine against both mild and severe forms of the disease is 79 percent for all age groups combined. The WHO noted that few people over the age of 60 participated in clinical trials. However, the Organization does not recommend setting an upper age limit for this vaccine.