The Russian Government confirmed this Saturday the start of the production of the vaccine against COVID-19 that it registered this week, with a view to starting a campaign in October that will have as its first objectives workers in the health and education sectors.
The Ministry of Health has reported in a statement that “the vaccine developed by the Nikolai Gamaleya Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology has begun to be produced,” dubbed Sputnik V and registered on August 11.
The authorities consider that its safety and efficacy have already been proven, something that the president, Vladimir Putin, defended when announcing the vaccine registration this week. This would immunize those who receive it for a period of two years, according to the Sputnik agency.
The national center that coordinates the fight against the coronavirus in Russia this Saturday reported 5,061 positives in 24 hours – 1,351 of them asymptomatic -, up to a total of 917,800. Moscow, with 695, and St. Petersburg, with 162, are the areas with the highest number of new cases.
The death toll has risen to 15,617, 119 more than on Friday, while more than 729,000 people have overcome the disease, 6,400 of whom have been discharged the previous day.
