Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that he is confident the Sputnik V vaccine will protect him, after one of his close aides contracted covid-19, forcing the Russian president to isolate himself.
This announcement comes when Putin has recently returned to participate in public events. Until a few weeks ago, the vast majority of their engagements were made by video, and the few people who could meet with the president had to undergo a period of isolation.
On Monday, Putin met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian athletes returning from the Tokyo Paralympic Games.
In a video conference with leaders of his United Russia party and his government, on the eve of the legislative elections, Putin confirmed that one of his collaborators, despite being vaccinated, had fallen ill with covid.
“He had been vaccinated again, but possibly too late. Three days after he was vaccinated, he became ill. The day before, I had communicated with him very closely,” Putin continued.
“I hope everything goes as it should, and that Sputnik V really demonstrates its high level of protection against covid-19,” said Putin, who has also been vaccinated, and who claims to have a “high” level of antibodies. .
Hours earlier, the Kremlin had announced that the 68-year-old president had isolated after the discovery of cases of covid-19 in his environment.
“Following identified cases of coronavirus in his environment, Vladimir Putin must respect a regime of self-isolation for a certain period of time,” the presidency said in a statement.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin “is in perfect health” and that he underwent a diagnostic test for the virus, although without revealing his result.
“Isolation will not directly affect the president’s work,” he added, as scheduled meetings were held by video conference.
Since the start of the pandemic, Russian authorities have deployed a drastic device to prevent the president from coming into contact with the virus.
According to the local press, people who had to approach him – political leaders, service staff – had to spend 14 days in quarantine in hotels and undergo regular diagnostic tests.
A disinfection spray space was also installed for visitors allowed to see it.
– A country hit by the virus –
Russia is among the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, in terms of fatalities and in fifth place in terms of number of infected, according to the AFP balance sheet.
According to the statistics agency Rosstat, about 350,000 Russians died from the covid-19 by the end of July 2021.
Despite the high availability of vaccines, health authorities are unable to control infections.
However, the number of contagions has subsided after firing in August, but on Tuesday 17,837 new cases and 781 new deaths were reported.
Authorities fail to convince a population skeptical of vaccines, and independent polls show a majority of Russians do not want to get the injection.
Only 39.9 billion of the 146 million Russians are fully vaccinated, according to the Gogov website, which collects official data from the regions.
Russia has several vaccines of its own available for its population, and does not distribute any vaccines made in Western countries.
Moscow, the epicenter of the pandemic in the country, and other regions have introduced mandatory vaccination measures to speed up immunization, and Putin has repeatedly called on his citizens to be immunized.
The Kremlin’s goal was to have 60% of the population protected in September, but it did not achieve its purpose despite having started vaccination in early December.
The Russian government has been accused of underestimating the effects of the pandemic and of having given up introducing new restrictive measures after the severe confinement decreed in 2020.
Authorities placed their hopes of curbing the pandemic on the four vaccines designed there: Sputnik V, EpiVacCorona, CoviVac and the single-dose Sputnik Light.