2020-12-19
Today, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia held a meeting with the Special Commission in charge of streamlining COVID vaccination.
The meeting, bringing together relevant Ministries, epidemiologists, international organizations, and the Public Defender, discussed work carried out to streamline the future process of vaccination and the steps taken to that end by the Special Commission established on the Prime Minister's instructions to secure timely vaccine import and relevant infrastructural and logistics aspects.
Special emphasis was placed on presently available and prospective vaccines in the world. The meeting underlined active cooperation with international organizations to define high risks groups to be vaccinated first. The meeting also underscored that the vaccine to be imported into the country must be recognized and meet international standards.
The meeting also assessed the country's cold chain, namely its requirements and characteristics.
According to the Head of Government, it is important to start vaccination in the country as soon as possible, using safe and quality vaccines based on US and European experience.
The meeting reiterated that, besides on the COVAX platform, the state, with engagement from the Foreign Ministry and Georgia's diplomatic missions abroad, are holding active negotiations with international partners and vaccine manufacturers. Concrete steps in this direction were discussed at the meeting by the Deputy Foreign Minister.
According to the Health Ministry, intensive work is underway to define vaccines from various manufacturers that will be maximally acceptable to the country, also ways to import them into the country and to identify target audiences to be vaccinated first.
To protect the highest human rights standards in the process of vaccination, the Public Defender of Georgia is actively involved in the work of the commission. Nino Lomjaria spoke about the importance of transparent decision-making and the citizen awareness, also emphasizing that the interests of groups increasingly at risk must be given priority.
The Special Commission established on the Prime Minister's instructions to secure streamlined vaccination continues a series of intensive working meetings.
Press Service of the Government Administration