TASHKENT (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th December, 2020) The authorities of Uzbekistan in 2021 will allocate 3 trillion soums (about $300 million) for vaccination and the fight against COVID-19, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, Mirziyoyev delivered an annual message in Tashkent to both chambers of parliament. Traditionally, the message is dedicated to the results of work in the current year and the highest-priority areas of the country's development in the coming year.
"The fight against coronavirus remains among our priorities for the next year. For this work, a reserve of 3 trillion soums has been formed in the state budget for 2021," Mirziyoyev said, adding that these funds would also be used to vaccinate the population against the coronavirus infection.
Mirziyoyev said that $200 million would be spent on improving the quality of work and the material and technical base of the sanitary-epidemiological service, and the creation of modern laboratories.
In November, the republic's authorities announced that they planned to test COVID-19 vaccines from Russia, China and Turkey to vaccinate up to 60 percent of the population against COVID-19 by June 2021. The population of Uzbekistan exceeds 34 million people.
Earlier in December, Russian Minister of Trade and Industry Denis Manturov delivered 100 doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus to Tashkent. The samples were transferred to the Uzbek side for further testing necessary for the registration and launch of industrial production of the vaccine in the republic.
On December 21, Russian Ambassador to Uzbekistan Vladimir Tyurdenev told reporters that Russia would supply the republic with 1 million doses of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine for labor migrants, adding that a contract for the supply of another Russian vaccine, EpiVacCorona, was expected in 2021.
