BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar.27
Trend:
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, Azerbaijan has become one of the first countries to mobilize global efforts to combat the pandemic, and has launched a number of valuable initiatives in this direction, MP Tamam Jafarova told Trend.
"Upon the initiative of the President of Azerbaijan, on December 3-4, 2020, a special session of the UN General Assembly at the level of heads of state and governments on the topic of combating the pandemic was successfully held, which made a great contribution to the coordinated joint activities of the international community," she said.
"At the same time, Azerbaijan was one of the first countries to join and support the COVAX international initiative on equitable distribution and availability of vaccines. The resolution adopted at the initiative of Azerbaijan in the UN Human Rights Council expresses support for international initiatives to promote equitable distribution of vaccines, including the COVAX initiative, and calls on all states to remove unnecessary barriers to the export of vaccines to other countries," Jafarova said.
She stressed that the current process has problems with equitable distribution of vaccines.
"At a press conference held by the president of Azerbaijan on February 26 for representatives of local and foreign media, the issue of the distribution of vaccines between countries was once again raised, as the distribution wasn't based on the principles of fairness and accessibility."
Jafarova noted that despite all these initiatives, despite the success in the fight against the pandemic, it seems that double standards are being applied to Azerbaijan on important health issues such as vaccines.
"So, despite the fact that Azerbaijan was one of the first countries to join and support the COVAX initiative, there were certain problems with the supply of vaccines to Azerbaijan from COVAX. COVAX informed the Azerbaijani side that vaccines will be delivered to our country in a previously agreed manner. However, despite the fact that some time has passed, COVAX has not yet provided vaccines to Azerbaijan. And in recent days, COVAX has informed Azerbaijan that fewer vaccines will be provided than promised, and even the timing of their delivery is unknown," she said.
Of course, this approach is not serious and, as a result, undermines the credibility of COVAX," Jafarova said.
"At the same time, the Azerbaijani government, despite the initial promises of COVAX, insured its work and ensured the timely delivery of the required amount of high-quality vaccines from China. The Azerbaijani state took so many preventive measures in connection with the pandemic, and did everything in such a timely manner that the injustice of COVAX will not entail great consequences for Azerbaijan," she noted.
"Already about half a million of our citizens have been vaccinated, and this process continues successfully. Azerbaijan was the country that launched the first vaccination campaign in our region. Thus, the mobilization of all resources by Azerbaijan for the timely delivery of vaccines is a vivid example of the high level of care of our country for its citizens," she said.