While many countries have begun to vaccinate people against Covid-19, Armenia is still negotiating with the major vaccine manufacturers to get the drug.

The four major manufacturers are Pfizer BioNtech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) which makes the Sputnik V vaccine.

Gayaneh Sahakyan, Deputy Director General of the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Armenia, at a Yerevan press conference today, said that the government plans to purchase enough vaccine for ten percent of the population and that only those in the “risk group” would get it.

Sahakyan told reporters that the Ministry of Health did have a small supply of the Sputnik V vaccine but did not say whether they were used or not.

“We now have a current contract with COVAX. We plan to purchase a vaccine for 10% of the population of the Republic of Armenia only to carry out vaccinations among the risk group," said Sahakyan.

Sahakyan said the vaccine would reach Armenia by late January or early February.

She did not specify what segments of the general risk group would get the vaccine first, or the amount of money the government intends to spend on the vaccine.

COVAX is an initiative of the World Health Organization (WHO) bringing together governments, global health organizations, manufacturers, scientists, private sector, civil society and philanthropy, with the aim of providing innovative and equitable access to COVID-19 diagnostics, treatments and vaccines.

355 people tested positive for the coronavirus in Armenia today and ten died from the disease.

The Covid-19 death toll to date in Armenia is 2,941.

Sahakyan said it is too early to talk about the development of herd immunity in Armenia, since 70-80% of the population must be infected for this to occur. As of today, 5.6% of the population of Armenia is infected.

Top photo from Russia's Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology