The coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and the disease it causes (COVID-19) has posed the greatest challenge to mankind as the pandemic has had unprecedented consequences. Dealing with COVID-19 has become a top priority for all governments all around the world. The Coronavirus reached Georgia on February 26, 2020, when the first case was confirmed. The Georgian government started taking measurements against the pandemic at an early stage. The measures taken by the government of the country in the spring of 2020 to overcome the spread, reduced the negative consequences of the virus, which made it possible to phase out restrictions from May. Under the influence of various factors, the growth of new coronavirus infections and new cases in Georgia began intensively in September, which led to a massive spread of the epidemic throughout the country. The schools were forced to shut down, which led to the whole first semester being held online and various steps were taken to stop the spread, including different restrictions. Fortunately, the different types of COVID Vaccines have already been implemented and at least 246 vaccine projects have started against Covid-19 since January 2020 (The World Health Organization (WHO))
On March 13, Georgia received the first batch of 43,200 doses of AstraZeneca (Oxford vaccine) produced by the AstraZeneca-SKBio (Republic of Korea).
AstraZen eca was approved by the “World Health Organization” on February
16 as a vaccine against the coronavirus. According to the international organization, the vaccine meets the necessary safety criteria, its effectiveness is higher than the risks, and with this vaccine it is possible to vaccinate people over 18 years. AstraZeneca efficiency ranges from 63% to 82.4%. It does not require special storage conditions (refrigerators with -2 to -7 degrees Celsius are required for storage) and is therefore suitable for low and middle-income countries.
The vaccination process in Georgia started on March 15 with priority groups identified by the government, among which the first will be representatives of the medical field. According to the “COVID-19 National Immunization Plan”, in the first phase of vaccination, 65% of medical staff (46,520 workers) should be vaccinated, 60% of beneficiaries of long-term care facilities (1,560 citizens), and 60% of citizens aged 75 and over (136, 080 citizens) vaccination is planned. As of March 20, 3,674 health care workers have been vaccinated. According to the “National Center for Disease Control and Public Health”, 5,250 health workers are currently registered to receive the vaccine.
Clear and effective communication is essential for the successful implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination program. Increasing trust in the vaccine in the general public and especially in the first target groups, as well as getting rid of the misinformation surrounding the vaccine, is important to ensure high vaccine uptake. In order to build the trust in the vaccine, the presidents, doctors and influential people all over the world are getting the first doses of the vaccine to encourage the people to do so as well, and Georgia is not an exception.
Paata Imnadze, Deputy Director of the National Center for Disease Control, was the first one to publicly get vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine at the “Tbilisi Infectious Diseases Hospital”. After getting vaccinated he stated: “I’m feeling great.” Another person to get publicly vaccinated is Georgia’s president, Salome Zurabishvili, who also got vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Unfortunately, the AstraZeneca vaccine, like all vaccines and medications, has side effects. The AstraZeneca vaccine was evaluated in clinical trials involving more than 23,000 participants. The most frequently reported adverse reactions in these trials were injection-site tenderness, injection-site pain, headache, fatigue, myalgia, malaise, pyrexia (fever), chills, arthralgia, and nausea; these were each reported in more than 1 in 10 people. In some cases, the vaccine might also cause death.
On March 18, 27-year-old Megi Bakradze, a nurse at one of the clinics in Akhaltsikhe, developed, according to preliminary estimates, anaphylactic shock within half an hour of receiving the coronavirus vaccine. However, an official medical report as to why the nurse developed anaphylactic shock and whether it was linked to the vaccine is not yet available. According to doctors, the young woman had a second heart attack in the afternoon and her death was confirmed at 12:00. According to the Ministry of Health, an investigation had launched to determine the cause-and-effect relationship between the young woman's serious condition and the vaccine. Due to the Akhaltsikhe incident, the possibility of suspending the AstraZeneca vaccine was considered, however, after the “European Regulatory Agency”, the “European Medicines Agency”, confirmed that the AstraZeneca vaccine was safe and effective, and the decision was made to continue using the vaccine.
Edited by Natalia Rakviashvili
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