Armenia has the fewest COVID-19 vaccines in the region. According to the international Reuters agency based on an analysis of the countries’ official data, approximately 23.4 percent of the population in Azerbaijan has received the first dose, whereas 6.69 percent of the population in Georgia received the first dose, 4.9 percent in Iran, 43.3 percent in Turkey, 2 percent in Armenia, and 17.3 percent in Russia.
According to data from the Armenian Ministry of Health, as of July 4th, 88,164 doses were administered, of which 66,491 were of the first dose, and 21,673 were of the second.
Armenia is still far away from forming a public immunity layer against the coronavirus. Many experts predict the fourth wave in September.
In an interview with Aravot Daily, public health expert Davit Melik-Nubaryan said that the intermediate period is over in our country, and it is natural that the 4th and 5th waves will start. According to the expert, now we are in the low number of new cases of the virus, but in 1.5 months, we will have an increase in numbers if everything continues as it is now. According to him, it has been proven that the most effective way to fight the coronavirus is vaccination, and in countries with high vaccination coverage, new cases have been reduced in those countries, and deaths have decreased by dozens of times. “For example, deaths have decreased in Israel by several dozens of times and by ten percent in Hungary and Great Britain. If the virus spreads among a large group of people, then the probability of developing mutations increases. When we prevent the spread of a virus through a specific vaccine, we also prevent the possibility of it developing a mutation.”
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Melik-Nubaryan also shared the good news: two doses of vaccines against COVID-19 protect people against all mutations, as is the case with the British Alpha variant. “But this does not mean that tomorrow, there may be another mutation that will weaken the effect of those vaccines, for example. So far, it is unlikely that there will be a mutation that will nullify the effect of the vaccine,” the specialist said.
Melik-Nubaryan also noted that Armenia has among the fewest vaccine doses in the region. But, for example, the same number of people are vaccinated in Azerbaijan in one day as in one month in Armenia, and three times the number of people are vaccinated in one day in Iran as in one month in Armenia.
Nelly Babayan
