Interview: Reliability, safety are factors behind Azerbaijan's choice of Chinese vaccine, says expert

The main factors behind Azerbaijan's choice of the Chinese CoronaVac vaccine are its reliability and safety, Seymur Mammadov, director of Eurasia-Azerbaijan, an international expert club, has said.

The Chinese vaccine has been clinically tested in several countries with good results and no complications, Mammadov told Xinhua in a recent interview in the capital city of Baku.

"On Jan. 18, a new and, perhaps, the most important stage in the fight against the global pandemic began in Azerbaijan, the mass vaccination against COVID-19," he said, adding that the country has ordered 4 million doses of vaccine developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech.

Azerbaijan's senior health officials on Monday took their first inoculation of the Sinovac vaccine, marking the beginning of mass immunization against COVID-19 in the country.

The beginning of mass inoculation of the Chinese vaccine in Azerbaijan will help the country step out of the COVID-19 swamp earlier than expected, Mammadov said.

Mass vaccination in Azerbaijan began almost simultaneously with the start of vaccination program with the Chinese vaccine in Turkey, the expert said.

The Chinese vaccine is one of the safest and most reliable vaccines in the world, and is quite suitable for Azerbaijan, he said.

"An important advantage of the Chinese vaccine is its reliable storage conditions," Mammadov said, adding that "it can be stored in an ordinary refrigerator. In comparison, American and European vaccines are very capricious to the conditions and often deteriorate during the process of shipping to certain countries."

Azerbaijan is now one of the countries that has taken a lead in vaccinating the population in the shortest possible time, thanks to the usage of the Chinese vaccine, he said.

"This shows the importance the government of Azerbaijan and the president of the country attach to the health of our citizens," Mammadov said.