BAKU (Reuters) – Azerbaijan has detected its first cases of a highly contagious variant of the coronavirus first identified in Britain, authorities said on Thursday.
The variant was detected in three samples, according to the National Centre of Haematology and Transfusiology which said that the vaccine currently used in Azerbaijan was effective against new variants.
Azerbaijan, a country of about 10 million people in the South Caucasus, started vaccinating citizens against COVID-19 with the vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd in January..
The country has recorded a total of 242,491 coronavirus cases and 3,307 deaths.
(Reporting by Nailia Bagirova, Writing by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Alison Williams)
