As of 4 June, the most recent date for which statistics are available, 2,076 people, or around 0.9 percent of the population, had received one dosage of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine. The long-awaited immunization campaign in Abkhazia began on May 12th.

In Abkhazia, the vaccination rate is among the lowest in the region. In Armenia, a relatively small percentage of the population, 1.1 percent, has gotten at least one dose. In Georgia, 4.8 percent of the population has got one dose, 12.4 percent in Russia, and 16.9 percent in Azerbaijan.

Before immunization was accessible to the public, all doctors and medical personnel received their initial doses, according to Vyacheslav Abukhba, the chief physician at the Sukhum (Sukhumi) City Hospital.

‘It is critical for doctors to be protected, because we are in close touch with hundreds of individuals at the hospital, and we have no idea who is sick,' Abukhba told OC Media.

After a patient with signs of heart failure was brought to the cardiology department at the Sukhumi City Hospital in the summer of 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak in Abkhazia began. It was eventually discovered that he has COVID-19. Several doctors who had touched on the patient became unwell, and some were reportedly moved to Georgian government-controlled territories for treatment.

Concerns have also been expressed about the possibility of new viral strains emerging in Abkhazia.