President Aliyev Highlights Azerbaijan’s Contribution to Global Fight Against COVID-19

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev revealed his country’s financial and humanitarian contributions to the fight against the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic since the disease outbreak.

“We have provided financial and humanitarian support to more than 80 countries,” the president said at the Baku Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Parliamentary Network in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku on Thursday.

“Also, we made a donation of $10 million to the World Health Organization, and half of that money was assigned directly to the NAM member states. So, our efforts with respect to the approach to COVID-19, I think, had a very important global reflection,” he added.

According to President Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s support has played a role in the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines since some wealthy countries stockpiled most of the jabs at the beginning of the pandemic.

“Our struggle against vaccine nationalism was also supported by the United Nations. And I think this also had a very important impact on a fair distribution of vaccines,” President Aliyev stressed.

Azerbaijan’s health authorities registered the first COVID-19 case in February 2020. In 2021, the government budgeted $475 million as part of the measures to contain the spread of the virus. The funds were mainly spent on purchasing vaccines and related medical equipment, special payments to doctors, volunteers, and other medical expenses. More than 13.7 million vaccines, including CoronaVac, Pfizer-BioNTech, Sputnik V, and Vaxzevria jabs, have been administered since the start of mass vaccination in January 2021.

The Azerbaijani government also assisted the World Health Organization (WHO) and dozens of countries in their struggle against the pandemic. Financial and humanitarian assistance reached more than 80 countries, including the members of the Non-Aligned Movement. At the same time, WHO received $10 million from Azerbaijan to facilitate global measures to fight the spread of the virus.

The current number of COVID-19 infection cases in Azerbaijan stands at 793,273. The virus has so far killed 9,717 people in the country. At present, 188 patients are being treated at the hospitals.