Georgia received 100,000 Chinese Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine on April 3. The country will start to use it after the WHO approval, which is likely in mid-April. On top of that, the Chinese government gifted 100,000 doses of the Sinovac coronavirus vaccine to Georgia, the head of the National Centre for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC), Amiran Gamkrelidze, said.
Some countries have already approved vaccines from China or are currently participating in trials. But how effective and safe are the vaccines?
Sinopharm vaccine is based on an inactivated virus. The company Sinopharm developed it in collaboration with the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Institute of Biological Products. On December 29, 2020, Sinopharm reported 79% efficacy in an interim evaluation. The vaccine was licensed in China one day later.
Data from other countries does not present a consistent picture — the Emirates confirmed even higher efficacy in their study: 86%.
Two dozes of Sinopharm jab is necessary for vaccination. The recommended internal between doses is 21 days for Sinopharm jab.
What are the side effects of Sinopharm?
There has not been seen any serious side effects after the inoculation. There have been only a few cases of mild and short-term side effects such as slight fever and little itching or redness where the vaccinated person received the jab.
Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine is approved in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Pakistan, Egypt, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and other Asian countries, including Turkey. The vaccine is also approved in Serbia and Hungary. Many other countries are waiting for the approval of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine by the WHO.
What guidelines did Georgia relay when it decided to bring in Sinopharm?
Georgia legally relies on 2 criteria in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccine: the vaccine is shipped in the country if it is authorized by World Health Organization or any of the strict regulators. In this case, the authorization of Hungary was enough for Georgia.
What does Georgian Health Minister say?
Health Minister Ekaterine Tikaradze declares that the Chinese vaccine Sinipharm does not face trust issues.
“Sinopharm does not face trust issues, more than 40 million people got Sinopharm jab worldwide. The vaccine is already awaiting authorization from the WHO. We have an intensive correspondence with the World Health Organization on the issue and we will decide on the council when the Chinese vaccine will be available in Georgia," Ekaterine Tikaradze said.
