COVID-19 pandemic in Azerbaijan | |
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Disease | COVID-19 |
Virus strain | SARS-CoV-2 |
Location | Azerbaijan |
First outbreak | Wuhan, Hubei, China; Iran |
Index case | Baku |
Arrival date | 28 February 2020 (4 years, 2 months, 3 weeks and 1 day) |
Confirmed cases | 835,371[1] |
Recovered | 208,681[2] |
Deaths | 10,353[1] |
Vaccinations | |
Government website | |
Official information portal Cabinet of Ministers Ministry of Healthcare State Agency of Mandatory Health Insurance |
The COVID-19 pandemic in Azerbaijan was a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus was confirmed to have spread to Azerbaijan when its first case was confirmed in February 2020.
In early June 2020, complete lockdowns were introduced in major cities, including the capital Baku, effective from June 5 to June 8.[3]
On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.[4][5]
The case fatality ratio for COVID-19 has been much lower than SARS of 2003,[6][7] but the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll.[8][6] Model-based simulations suggest that the 95% confidence interval for the time-varying reproduction number R t was lower than 1.0 in July and August but higher than 1.0 in October and November 2020.[9]
Some critics of the government have been arrested for allegedly spreading false information about the COVID-19 pandemic.[68]
Azerbaijan has donated US$5 million to WHO, US$5 million to Iran, medical supplies to Xian City and Mianyang of China, and sent humanitarian aid to Bosnia and Herzegovina to support their fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.[90][91][92][93]
In addition to financial, humanitarian and medical donations to other countries and organizations, Azerbaijan has also shown its solidarity with the nations fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic by illuminating the Heydar Aliyev Center with the colors of the flags of the countries affected by COVID-19. The process started on April 3, 2020, with the Chinese flag and then the flags of France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Russia, Spain, Turkey, the UK, the USA, Georgia, the EU, and the WHO were projected daily onto the building of HAC designed by designer Zaha Hadid.[94]