MOSCOW (AP) – President Vladimir Putin called his Argentine counterpart on Monday, who tested positive for COVID-19 despite a Russian vaccine.
The Kremlin said in a reading of the appeal that Argentine President Alberto Fernández had told Putin that he had only minor symptoms due to receiving the Sputnik V vaccine. Fernández thanked Russia for providing assistance in fighting the coronavirus and expressed interest in obtaining additional supplies of Russian vaccine, according to the Kremlin statement.
Putin congratulated Fernández, who turned 62 on Friday, on his birthday and wished him a speedy recovery.
In a tweet on Saturday, Fernández said he has a headache and a fever of 37.3 Celsius (99.1 Fahrenheit). He said otherwise he has mild symptoms, isolates and is “physically fit”.
The Argentine president received a dose of Sputnik V on January 21 and a second dose a few days later.
The Russian Gamaleya Institute, which produced the vaccine, wrote on Twitter that it wished the president a speedy recovery and said the vaccine had an efficacy rate of 91.6% against infection and 100% against critical cases.
More than 650,000 people in Argentina have received both scheduled vaccines and only about 1,000 of them have been found to be infected more than 14 days after the final dose, according to national health statistics.
None of the vaccines used against the new coronavirus completely eliminate infections, although they have been shown to suddenly reduce the rate of infection and its severity.
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