As the fight against COVID-19 continues across the world and the virus maintains its stranglehold on the global economy, the Tribune keeps you up-to-date with the latest vaccines and infection data across the region. Numbers reflect World Health Organisation data.

ARMENIA

• 255,618 coronavirus infections
• 5,200total deaths

Health Minister Anahit Avanesyan expressed satisfaction at rising numbers of vaccinations in Armenia despite widespread vaccine hesitation.

As of the end of August,  less than 5 percent of Armenia’s population had been vaccinated. And a poll released by the International Republican Institute showed 50 percent of respondents saying they “definitely” or “probably” would not  get vaccinated.

“If in March only 10 percent of Armenians were ready to be vaccinated, today’s surveys show that 40 percent of the population is prepared to be vaccinated; this is a good indicator,” Avanesyan said.

COVID cases began rising sharply this month. On September 1, the country recorded 636 new cases and 19 coronavirus-linked deaths, an infection rate about double the month before and the highest single-day death toll in months.

Since May 2020, the country has had very few restrictions and what regulations do remain are widely flouted. Masks are almost never seen.  Armenia was the only nation in the Caucasus which opted not to impose a second lockdown following the spike in coronavirus cases all three experienced last fall.

AZERBAIJAN

• 476,409 cases
• 6,370 deaths

The government eased quarantine restrictions in a wide range of areas from 1st October as vaccination levels climb and numbers of infections decline.

Public transport will now operate regularly seven days a week. Concert halls, cinemas, children’s theatres and other cultural institutions will be able to resume operations subject to 50 percent capacity rules and presentation of vaccination cards. Eighty percent of staff in this sector must be vaccinated. Hours of operation for these and other sites will be extended.

Inter-city transport will resume, subject to passengers being vaccinated — one dose by 1st October, two doses by 1st November.

As of 24th September,  4.68 million people had received a single vaccination while 3.54 million were fully vaccinated in a country of just over 10 million .

Earlier in September, Ramin Bayramli. the head of the body responsible for communicating government measures on the pandemic, the union for the Management of Medical Territorial Units, resigned. He gave no reason for stepping down.

The government expanded the list of countries, whose citizens can now enter Azerbaijan – added to the list were mainly European states.

Officials have noted the presence of the “Delta” and “Alpha” variants of COVID had now been detected and registered in Azerbaijan.

Pfizer, Russia’s Sputnik V, AstraZeneca and Chinese CoronaVac vaccines are in use.

BELARUS

• 522,278 cases
• 4.041 deaths.

Lukashenko initially branded the coronavirus a “psychosis”, refused to impose restrictions and allowed mass gatherings like football matches to proceed without impediment – until he caught the virus himself.

Belarus has been slapped with new Western sanctions after authorities diverted a scheduled aircraft headed for Lithuania, ordered it to land in Minsk and arrested a dissident journalist who was on board. Lukashenko has defended the move as necessary to protect his people.

He weathered a wave of mass protests last year against what his opponents said was his rigged re-election. Amnesty International says health workers who have supported the protest movement have been subject to punitive action from the authorities.

GEORGIA

• 602,065 cases
• 8,771 deaths

The head of the Infectious Diseases and AIDS Centre of Tbilisi, Tengiz Tsertsvadze, has called the low rate of COVID vaccination in Georgia “an apocalypse and sabotage against the state by Georgian citizens”.

He said part of the Pfizer vaccine allotment now in Georgia may expire because of low demand in the country.

A total of 1,700,895 people have received a single vaccine dose (Pfizer, AstraZeneca or Chinese vaccines Sinovac and Sinopharm) since March 2021. And 740,814 have been fully vaccinated – more than 25 per cent of the country’s adult population.

Georgian health officials earlier this month warned the public that the next wave of COVID will be “critically dangerous” for unvaccinated individuals above the age of 60. The Deputy Minister of Health Tamar Gabunia said the mortality and hospitalisation rates are higher among individuals over 60, the least vaccinated group in the country.

A new surge in COVID cases earlier this month prompted officials to reintroduce some restrictive measures.

Schools are to resume on 15th September, but lessons are to be conducted online.

Day care centres remain closed until 4th October. Universities are subject to severe restrictions.

All concerts, entertainment and sports events have been cancelled.

Official statistics showed a record daily high of new COVID cases on 19th August – 5,967. Numbers have since slightly declined.

The National Centre for Disease Control said it was seeking a vaccination rate of at least 60 percent to halt the spread of the virus.

Georgia opened its land borders on June 1 and foreigners can now enter the country by air or by surface transport. Fully vaccinated travellers are allowed entry, those with partial vaccinations must produce a PCR test within 72 hours of arrival. Additional restrictions are placed on those travelling from India.

Authorities plan to introduce the vaccination documents for all citizens – to be used for travel or in an emergency.

KAZAKHSTAN

• 944,733 cases
• 15,503 deaths

COVID levels have stabilised in the past two week, with a 60 percent reduction of morbidity and mortality rates,  Kazakh Minister of Healthcare Alexei Tsoy told a government meeting.

Officials earlier this month announced an easing of restrictions in the capital, Nur-Sultan.

Public transport is now to be allowed to operate on Sundays. Religious services are permitted, but only outdoors and according to social distancing norms.

Kazakhstan’s first president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, received his first dose in June of the Sputnik V vaccine produced at the Kazakh plant in Karaganda and appealed to all citizens to observe regulations imposed by health authorities as part of efforts to speed up the vaccination programme and contain COVID.

Officials said a plant for producing a made-in-Kazakstan COVID vaccine would soon open and production there would be sufficient to cover domestic needs. A second vaccine is undergoing testing.

Officials have halted talks aimed at securing the AstraZeneca vaccine in view of problems associated with it.

Negotiations are continuing on securing supplies of Moderna, Pfizer and John and Johnson.

Officials have called on residents to get vaccinated, but there is widespread hesitation and the programme is proceeding slowly.

Three vaccines are being administered — a made-in Kazakhstan vaccine produced so far in small quantities, Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine and Hayat-Vax, produced jointly by China and the United Arab Emirates.

Further funding equivalent to $3.74 million has been approved from the budget for the construction of a plant for the production of the domestic vaccine.

Officials say the obligatory mask regime will be lifted once vaccination rates hit 60 percent.

     MOLDOVA

• 285,321 cases
• 6,632 deaths

Health Minister Alla Nemerenko said vaccinations would be made obligatory for certain officials, including those involved in serving large numbers of people.

Nemerenko also said schools in areas of high infection (“orange” and “red” zones) would switch to online classes.

Daily numbers of new infections have varied, but figures have exceeded 1,000 on several occasions in the past two weeks.

Authorities earlier this month announced new national lockdown restrictions amid rising COVID infections.

The restrictions will bar non-vaccinated people from visiting bars, restaurants, and cultural events and will remain in effect until at least 31st October.

Vaccination efforts are proceeding slowly, with only about 25 percent of the population fully vaccinated.

President Maia Sandu received the second dose of the Astra-Zeneza vaccine ahead of a resounding victory in a snap election by the pro-European party she used to lead. She urged Moldovans to proceed quickly with vaccinations in order to improve the situation with COVID.

Vaccinations are now open to any citizen aged 18 and over and a variety of vaccines are in use — Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Russia’s Sputnik-V and Chinese vaccines.

RUSSIA

• 7.35 million cases
• 201,445 deaths

Russia recorded a record number of daily COVID deaths on 24th September — 828.

Daily case counts have exceeded 20,000.

Following last week’s parliamentary election, officials have issued sterner warnings about COVID.

Officials in the Moscow region said they had set up hundreds of new COVID hospital beds. In St. Petersburg, the government said that 348 people had been undergoing hospital treatment in the last 24 hours — one of the highest such figures in Russia’s second-biggest city since early August.

“The increase in illness is only beginning,” epidemiologist Natalia Pshenichnay told Interfax news agency.

President Vladimir Putin has placed himself in solation after several members of his staff tested positive.

But many Russians appear unconcerned, questioning the need to be vaccinated and failing to wear masks consistently.

An Argentine study published in The Lancet showed that the first dose of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine is 78.6 percent effective against coronavirus infection, but the results might not apply to the Delta variant.

Vaccination hesitancy, a legacy of Soviet-era distrust of authority, remains high. A poll by the independent Levada Center in August showed that 55 percent of Russians do not plan on getting inoculated.

The Kremlin says there are no immediate plans to allow foreign coronavirus vaccines into Russia, despite the country’s sluggish vaccination rates and rising death toll.

Russia was the first to produce the COVID vaccine — Sputnik V — and the vaccine is readily available, but the country has failed to meet expected vaccination targets.

TURKMENISTAN

The isolated country claims no COVID-19 cases, though this statement is widely questioned. The U.K.’s envoy to Turkmenistan notably claimed he contacted the COVID in the country.

Vaccinations:

None so far. President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has suggested eating liquorice could ward off infection.

Restrictions:

Even before the pandemic, no country had a visa-free regime with Turkmenistan. Visas are rarely granted except for tourists on tightly controlled and expensive “official” tours.

Last July, a day after the death of a Turkish diplomat from the coronavirus in Turkmenistan, the country has required the wearing of masks, though it advises this is as a guard against frequent dust storms.

UKRAINE

• 2.37 million cases
• 55,284 deaths

Daily case counts are on the rise and this week exceeded 9,000 on 23rd September.

The country’s top doctor, Ihor Kuzmin, said “red zone” restrictions could be introduced “within days” in four regions — Zhytomyr and Lviv in the west and Luhansk and Kharkiv in the east, depending on infection rates.

Quarantine measures were extended until the end of the year.

“We are preparing hospitals and the entire medical system,” Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.

The government earlier set down rules on introducing certificates for citizens “yellow” to be issued after the first vaccination, “green” when fully vaccinated.

Regions would also be subject to different regulations. Under “yellow” regulations, schools can only operate in-person if 80 percent of the staff are vaccinated. Health Minister Viktor Lyashko said 40 percent of school staff in the country had had a single dose and 30 percent were fully vaccinated.

Public transport will continue to operate under “yellow” regulations.

A poll showed that 56 percent of respondents had no intention of getting vaccinated. The lowest vaccination rates were among the elderly — 7.6 percent of residents over 80 had been vaccinated. The rate for ages 40 to 59 stood at about 20 percent.

The Delta virus has been identified as the dominant variant in Ukraine.

Authorities in Russian-occupied Crimea reported a record number of infections this month.

Chinese Coronavac vaccines were being administered along with Pfizer from mid-April. Previously, authorities were relying on an Indian-produced variation of the AstraZeneca vaccination.

UZBEKISTAN

* 170, 520 cases

* 1,207 deaths

Uzbekistan lifted some restrictions to allow mass cultural, sports and other events — both outdoors and indoors.

A commission to contain COVID said the measures were introduced to “Create amenities for the population for cultural and spiritual leisure as well as recreation by reducing quarantine requirements”.

Service sector employees, including those at cultural and entertainment facilities, restaurants and wedding halls must have a certificate of vaccination.

Family events and weddings will also now be permitted, with a limit of 100 people and in strict compliance with sanitary requirements. But such events have been place for some time with limited oversight.

Earlier this month, the United States provided Uzbekistan with a donation of 1,214,460 doses of the Pfizer vaccine as part of the COVAX project for less affluent countries.

Under the programme, Uzbekistan had earlier received three million doses of the Moderna vaccine from the United States as well as about one million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in multiple deliveries.

Authorities this month registered an Uzbek-Chinese vaccine and a locally produced version of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. They said a local manufacturer intends to produce 2 million doses of Sputnik V and 10 million doses of the Sino-Uzbek vaccine.

Vaccination was made mandatory last month for various categories of citizens — front-line workers. employees of retail stores, sports centres and recreational areas.

The Health Ministry said last month that more than 1.38 million people had been fully vaccinated. Some 3.7 million had received a single vaccination. Almost 100 percent of the military has received at least one dose.

Authorities launched a campaign to gain the trust of people unwilling to be vaccinated.

The director of the Uzbek Virology Research Institute, Erkin Musabaev, told local media last month that the Delta variant was responsible for new rises in COVID numbers. Vaccination was effective, but numbers remained low as people lacked confidence in the Uzbek-Chinese vaccine

Vaccinations are now available to anyone 18 and over and authorities are offering incentives to improve low vaccination rates, including reduced tuition fees for students.