Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine to be administered to medics in two weeks

Russia, after launching the first COVID-19 vaccine, has rejected the safety concerns over the rapid approval of its vaccine and has administered the vaccine to the medics in two weeks.

Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V has already been approved and now its first batch would be ready for some medics within the next two weeks. On Wednesday, 12 August, Russia also rejected the safety concerns over the rapid approval of its vaccine on the basis of being ‘groundless’.

President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday, 11 August that Russia had become the first country to grant regulatory approval to a COVID-19 vaccine, after less than two months of human testing.

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Final trails of the vaccine are not yet complete and only 10% of its clinical trials have been successful. Hence, a lot of scientists fear that Moscow may be putting national prestige before safety.

Countering that concern, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said that his foreign colleagues are worried about the competitive advantage of the Russian drug and hence are trying to express opinions, which in his opinion, are ‘completely groundless’.

The vaccine has been developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute and would be administered to people, including doctors, on a voluntary basis.

Alexander Gintsburg, director of the Gamaleya Institute, said clinical trials would be published once they have been assessed by Russia’s own experts. According to him, Russia plans to produce 5 million doses by December 2020-January 2021.

Kazakhstan plans to send government officials to Moscow later this month to discuss possible deliveries of the vaccine, its presidential office said.