Uzbekistan is intending to start the mass vaccination of its population against coronavirus (COVID-19) on April 1, an official engaged in the fight against the disease, Nurmat Atabekov, said on March 24. The government plans to vaccinate 4.1mn people in the country deemed at risk because of various indicators.

According to Atabekov, the first stage of vaccination will take place with the use of AstraZeneca vaccine made in India. On March 17, Uzbekistan received 660,000 doses of this drug under the global COVAX programme. At the rate of two doses per person, the government plans to vaccinate 330,000 people.

Vaccinations on a voluntary basis will be carried out in a certain sequence: in a first phase, citizens aged 65-74 years, then 75-84, then 85 and older will be vaccinated; next will be health workers and citizens with chronic diseases (18-65 years); after that, school teachers, pre-school employees, military personnel and law enforcement officers will receive a vaccine.

"In early April, we expect another 1.5mn doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. In addition, Uzbekistan will also purchase Russian Sputnik V, as well as a joint Chinese-Uzbek vaccine ZF-UZ-VAC 2001, which is approved by the Chinese government for emergency use," Atabekov added.

He also commented on the situation with the increasing number of infected people: "We register approximately 110-120 new patients every day... However, there is no need to expand the additional number of beds in infectious diseases hospitals now. Only a quarter of the hospitals are full. There are no grounds for increasing quarantine measures, but the requirements for the population to prevent infection remain."