Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered a massive “whole population” vaccination campaign against the coronavirus to begin next week, while defending the Sputnik V vaccine, which he described as “the best in the world.”
“I demand the launch of mass vaccination of the entire population starting next week and carrying it out with the respective work schedule, as is done with other diseases, such as the flu,” he said, as reported by the Russian news agency TASS.
He argued that the authorities had already begun the “large-scale” vaccination process and added that Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin had told him last week that “the industry had not only achieved the promised targets and volumes, but also exceeded the vaccine production. “We need to move from large-scale vaccination to mass vaccination,” he said.
Putin also said that “no other drug against coronavirus has the level of protection and safety that Sputnik V has shown” and chose to determine the effectiveness of the vaccine “under the conditions of many strains.” “It is necessary to conduct a thorough investigation,” he added.
Putin’s words came on a day when Russia overcame the barrier of 63,000 deaths caused by coronavirus after adding more than 550 deaths in the last day, according to data published by the Russian operational center for the fight against coronavirus.
The agency said 22,850 cases and 566 deaths had been detected in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 3,471,053 and 63,370, respectively, since the beginning of the pandemic, with infections detected on the last day in the 85 regions that make up the country. .
Thus, he specified that the capital, Moscow, appears again as the city with the latest cases, with 4,320, followed by St. Petersburg, with 3,003, and the province of Moscow, with 1,189. On the last day, 28,658 people were discharged, bringing the total to 2,854,088 since the beginning of the pandemic.
In turn, the National Office for Consumer Protection (Rospotrebnadzor) pointed out that 616,174 people are currently under observation and estimated coronavirus tests performed in the country at 94.6 million, according to the Russian press agency Sputnik.
The Russian government gave permission on Monday to begin clinical trials of the “light” version of the Russian coronavirus vaccine, called Sputnik V, according to a document from the Ministry of Health. “The tests will begin on February 8, 2021 and end on December 31, 2021,” he collects.
Putin previously indicated that there was a “light” version of the Sputnik V vaccine and stressed that it would have a shorter effect, but with the possibility of vaccinating more people.
In this regard, the director of the Gamaleya Research Center, Alexander Ginzburg, explained that this new vaccine confers immunity in three weeks and maintains it for three to four months, while arguing that the main goal is to reduce the number of deaths in countries with a very high deaths.