BAKU (Reuters) – Azerbaijan plans to import 432,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and 300,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine over the next half year, government documents showed on Thursday.
The former Soviet nation of 10 million people has not formally registered either of those vaccines for use.
Two government orders signed by Prime Minister Ali Asadov and published on Thursday said the AstraZeneca vaccine should be supplied in line with a contract agreed last September.
Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund, which is promoting Russia’s domestically produced Sputnik V vaccine internationally, declined to comment on the plans.
Azerbaijan has already bought 4 million doses of China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd vaccine and began a voluntary vaccine programme on Jan. 18. It will also receive 2 million doses through the COVAX international mechanism.
(Reporting by Nailia Bagirova and Gleb Stolyarov; additional reporting by Polina Nikolskaya; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Giles Elgood)
