Before leaving the house today, my daughter asked me whether or not she could find anywhere how many people had been vaccinated fully to this day? I decided BM.GE needed to be the reliable source for this information.
So I approached data organizations that had been using several reliable sources – mostly WHO statistics and official data of the countries. Of course, this data is constantly updated, so what you see on these charts today is as of February 7, 2021 – the most recent update for today.
So, here are some selected charts that I would like to share with you.
On the Chart below, you can see the share of the total population that has received all doses prescribed by the vaccination protocol. For the maximum accuracy of the data, the map depicts only those countries which report the breakdown of doses administered by first and second doses.
Now let us dig deeper into the green parts of the map above. For that, we can use another chart where we can more easily link the share of the total population with the specific countries on the map that have received all doses prescribed by the vaccination protocol. Here again, the principle of following only those countries which report the breakdown of doses administered by first and second doses is strictly adhered to.
This Chart is pretty self-explanatory and we see very clearly that Israel is the unanimous leader in the vaccination process. But at the same time, on this very Chart we also see countries relatively similar to Georgia like Estonia, Poland or Slovenia where as of February 7 about 1.5% of population on average are already fully vaccinated. You cannot yet find Georgia on this Chart.
Early this week two very important news releases have been distributed – both on the input that two prominent financial institutions – Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank (WB) – have in the deployment of the National Vaccine Plan of Georgia.
“The National Plan for COVID-19 Vaccine Deployment is an important prerequisite for securing Georgia’s access to COVID-19 vaccines and their smooth and successful deployment,” said ADB Country Director for Georgia Shane Rosenthal. “The plan will help Georgia save lives and fully reopen the economy.”
Anna Bjerde, VP of the WB for Europe and Central Asia (ECA) also held a meeting in a format of video conference last week with the Prime Minister of Georgia Giorgi Gakharia, and discussed the partnership strategy and potential directions of WB support towards the national plan of vaccination in Georgia.
BM.GE decided to compare the countries of the region as identified by these two financial institutions.
For the WB, the region where it considers Georgia is Europe and Central Asia with total of 58 countries. We asked what the share of the population was who had been vaccinated at least once in this region. The Chart below gives the answer.
We should note here once more that this Chart does not show the share of fully vaccinated population since some vaccines require two doses, but this Chart is a very good indication that more than half of the countries in the WB’s classification of the region Europe and Central Asia where Georgia is also located, some shares of the population have already had their first jabs. The leader here is definitely Gibraltar. You cannot yet find Georgia on this Chart as well.
As for the ADB, we compared 8 countries of the region – Central Asia and South Caucasus - which includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Our approach was the same - we asked what the share of the population was who had been vaccinated at least once in this region. The data is not available, which leaves us without a Chart for this region.
And lastly, we decided to examine what the vaccination trends were in the countries of the immediate neighborhood of Georgia. The only statistic that we have in the immediate region is for Russia and Turkey and only the cumulative COVID-19 vaccinations which means only the total number of vaccination doses administered.
We have to note here that this is counted as a single dose and may not equal the total number of people vaccinated. This in its turn depends on the specific dose regime of the vaccine. The Chart below considers all these specifications:
To be clear, in this Editor’s Note we are not claiming anything. BM.GE wanted to highlight general vaccination trends globally depending on visualizations that use multiple reliable resources to put together the overall picture which is regularly updated.
Following news in Georgia and with the first jabs that could be administered starting from late-February, BM.GE will update the global picture again.
Hopefully, we will find Georgia on these charts from then onward.
All of us understand that how our economy performs tomorrow is totally dependent on how the government manages to accelerate vaccination today.
In the next Editor’s Note we will focus on COVAX platform; tell you more about this platform and where Georgia is on COVAX-map.
Meanwhile, do what you can: wash hands frequently, use a face-mask and keep the distance.
Do your best to stay healthy!
And read BM.GE!
