"Enough Reporting, Start Vaccinations"…Putin's Word Sparks Russia's Vaccination Launch Next Week

Next Week, 2 Million Doses Released... Priority Vaccination for Medical Staff and Teachers

[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] Under the directive of Russian President Vladimir Putin, COVID-19 vaccinations will begin in Russia starting next week. With President Putin designating doctors and teachers as the priority recipients, 2 million people will receive Russia's domestically produced COVID-19 vaccine, 'Sputnik V,' next week.

Russian President Vladimir Putin [Photo by AP]

On the 2nd (local time), President Putin instructed Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova at the opening ceremony of the Ministry of Defense's medical center held via video conference, "Start large-scale vaccinations next week without needing to report to me." He mentioned that 2 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have already been produced in Russia and stated, "Even if not general vaccination, this amount is enough to start large-scale inoculation."

The priority recipients are identified as high-risk groups, specifically doctors and teachers.

The vaccine to be administered this time is the Sputnik V vaccine developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology. This vaccine broke the usual vaccine development procedure by receiving approval after completing phase 2 clinical trials, bypassing the typical phase 3 approval process. Subsequently, Russia began phase 3 clinical trials involving volunteers.

The Russian government announced that the Sputnik V vaccine showed 95% efficacy in phase 3 clinical trials. This performance is comparable to vaccines from American manufacturers Moderna and Pfizer. However, experts have raised concerns about Russia rushing the vaccine approval and the relatively small number of clinical trial participants.

In this regard, the Russian government disclosed that the vaccine has already been administered to 100,000 people. Mikhail Murashko, Russia's Minister of Health, said, "The collected data showed that this vaccine elicited a strong antibody immune response," adding, "Sputnik V will begin mass vaccination in all possible regions of Russia."

The Russian presidential office stated that Russian citizens are the priority recipients for the COVID-19 vaccine. Dmitry Peskov, spokesperson for the Russian presidential office, said, "Russian citizens have absolute priority," and "Vaccines produced in Russia will be used to vaccinate Russian nationals."

In Russia, besides Sputnik V, a second vaccine has been approved, and a third vaccine is under development. Russia plans to supply 500 million doses of vaccines outside Russia next year and has requested approval from 40 countries.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.