Country lifts ban on weddings amid easing of COVID-19 restrictions

Azerbaijan will lift the ban on weddings, engagement and birthday parties and other large gatherings as of July 1, the Operational Headquarters under the Cabinet of Ministers announced this week.

The maximum number of participants of these gatherings must not exceed 150.

Under the new rules, visitors over the age of 18 must provide a COVID-19 passport or a COVID-19 recovery document to attend such gatherings if the number of guests is between 50 and 150.

No COVID-19 passports are required if the number of guests does not exceed 50.

However, at least 80 percent of employees (including temporary hired workers) of facilities hosting such events must have a COVID-19 passport.

Face masks are not mandatory for participants of such events, while employees of venues hosting these events (excluding musicians) will be required to wear face masks, gloves and other personal protective equipment.

Information on the conference halls functioning within the given facility, their capacity and the personnel working should be entered by the enterprise owner at icaze.e-gov.az portal that will be activated as of June 26.

Information about the date of the event, the start and end time, the number of guests must be entered into the portal no later than 5 days before the date of the upcoming event. Holding events that are not registered on the portal and do not include the relevant information is prohibited.

Under the Cabinet of Minister’s rules, an agreement on joint responsibility for compliance with quarantine rules must be signed between the organizer and the facility owner during the organization and holding of such events.

Azerbaijan started vaccinating citizens using China’s Sinovac on January 18, Vaxzevria vaccine produced by AstraZeneca on May 3, Russia’s Sputnik V on May 18 and US-produced Pfizer on June 7. The country started offering COVID-19 vaccination to citizens aged over 18 from May 10.

The nationwide vaccination is free and on a voluntary basis and is in line with the “Strategy of vaccination against COVID-19 in Azerbaijan for 2021-2022”.

It should be noted that Azerbaijan ranks second among the CIS countries for the number of vaccinated citizens per capita.

Azerbaijan has registered 335,521 COVID-19 cases so far. Some 2,989,673 COVID-19 vaccines have been provided to the citizens to this date. The first dose of the vaccine was given to 1,949,646 citizens, and the second one to 1,040,027 citizens.

From May 31, the country eased coronavirus restrictions, which included lifting face mask mandate in open places and introduced COVID19 passports.

The next stage of easing of lockdown entered force on June 10 and included the opening of places of worship, large trade centers, beaches, sports and recreational centers. Citizens are required to present COVID-19 passports to enter sports and recreational centers.

Azerbaijan confirmed its first COVID-19 case on February 28, 2020. The government allocated $1.1bn from the 2020 budget to fight the coronavirus infection.