According to Amiran Gamkrelidze, head of the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health, 100,000 doses of Chinese vaccine "Sinopharm", which the country bought, and another 100,000 doses of "Sinovac" vaccine, which China gifted to Georgia, will be delivered to the country on Saturday.

According to Gamkrelidze, Georgia paid about USD 18-20 per Chinese vaccine, while Astrazeneca and Pfizer cost USD 4-5 and USD 11-12 respectively.

"As for the Chinese vaccine, it should be delivered to Georgia on Saturday, this is the preliminary information. China currently has 5 vaccines in production, two of which are already in international use, meaning that in addition to China, it is used by other countries on a very large scale. We have Sinopharm, which was bought by the country, and Sinovac, which was gifted to Georgia in 100,000-100,000 doses. These are two Chinese vaccines used not only in China, where more than 80 million people have already been vaccinated, they are widely used in a number of countries, such as the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Hungary, Serbia, South America, Brazil, Chile. It is recognized by regulators in several countries, including what the WHO considers to be a strict regulator, such as the Hungarian regulator as one of the members of the European Union. China has applied about these two vaccines for WHO authorization.

According to preliminary information, WHO should consider and give authorization in early April, therefore there will be respective decisions in Georgia.

Vaccine prices vary from country to country. If I am not mistaken, we bought Astrazeneca through Covax for 4-5 dollars, we bought Pfizer for 11-12 dollars, and the Chinese vaccine Sinopharm is more expensive and costs somewhere between 18-20 dollars. In general, there is a huge shortage of vaccines on the world market and it is not easy to choose a vaccine based on price", - Gamkrelidze said.