
The first consignment of ‘Sputnik V’ vaccines from Russia arrived on Saturday in Hyderabad, Telangana.
Russian envoy Nikolay Kudashev expressed his happiness over the delivery of the first set of the vaccine consignment and said that the local production is about to start soon and is planned to be gradually increased up to 850 million doses per year.
“Happy to share that the first batch of the Sputnik V vaccine was delivered today! As Russia and India continue dedicated joint efforts to combat the #COVID19, this move is especially important to support the Indian Government’s endeavours to mitigate the deadly second wave and save lives,” Ambassador Kudashev said in a statement, reported the news agency ANI.
He further emphasized that Sputnik V has the highest efficiency, compared to the other vaccines in the world and highlighted that it will be effective against the new strains of Covid-19 as well.
“Its local production is about to start soon and is planned to be gradually increased up to 850 million doses per year. Look forward to further expand our bilateral and multilateral cooperation with India to stop the pandemic,” the Russian envoy Nikolay Kudashev added.
Earlier, in the month of March, the Drug Controller General (DCGI) had issued permission for Dr Reddy’s Laboratories to import the Russian vaccine to India for emergency use.
The Russian vaccine is expected to augment India’s third phase of inoculation drive which commenced on Saturday, amid a record rise in COVID-19 cases.
India’s current situation has already made it to the international headlines and for the first time, the nation has reported more than 4 lakh new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours.
A total of 4,01,993 fresh COVID-19 cases were recorded in the last 24 hours taking the cumulative count of the cases to 1,91,64,969, suggests the data released by the Union Health Ministry on Saturday, reported the news agency ANI.
Sputnik V is known to be the third vaccine in India which has given the go-ahead after ‘Covishield’, developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca and ‘Covaxin’, the indigenous vaccine manufactured by Bharat Biotech.
Covishield is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
India is facing the brunt of the second wave of the novel coronavirus and the crippling healthcare infrastructure has flagged concerns across the nation.
According to the ANI report, Diplomatic sources said that India will get a substantive number of vaccines in the first tranche and the supply will continue in instalments. The nation is expecting 5 million vials of Sputnik vaccines by the next month.
While India is struggling with the lack of medical supplies, Covid-19 stands as a formidable challenge for the nation. However, several nations have come to India’s rescue – more than 40 countries including Russia have committed to sending vital medical aid.