Armenian President Armen Sarkissian and World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus met in Geneva today and shared their concern that Armenia’s Covid-19 vaccination rate remains dangerously low.

Ghebreyesus warned of possible travel restrictions placed on its citizens.

Both agreed that affordable and safe vaccines are needed to overcome the crisis.

Armenia’s Ministry of Health says that as of September 5, 303,325 people have been vaccinated - 195,280 have received their first dose and 105,035, the second.

The Armenian government, on July 29, approved the allocation of 3.459 billion drams ($7M) from the country’s reserve fund to purchase new coronavirus vaccines.

The money was used to purchase the Chinese Sinopharm and US-German Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, which, according to the Health Ministry, will increase the share of vaccine recipients by 10% (a total of 500,000 doses for 250,000 people in 2 doses).

The Chinese Sinopharm, Russian Sputnik V and Anglo-Swedish AstraZeneca vaccines are now available in Armenia. 

Armenian Ministry of Health Spokesperson Hripsimeh Khachatryan recently announced that the Pfizer vaccine will reach Armenia by mid-September. 

764 people in Armenia tested positive for the coronavirus yesterday and nineteen died from the virus. The death toll stands at 5,075.