Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered on Wednesday that a massive “whole population” vaccination campaign against coronavirus be launched next week, at the same time as he defended the Sputnik V vaccine, which he described as “the best in the world “.
“I ask to launch mass vaccination of the entire population from next week and carry it out with their respective work schedule, as is done with other diseases such as the flu,” he said, he reported. the Russian news agency TASS.
He argued that the authorities had already begun the “large-scale” vaccination process and added that Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin told him last week that “the industry has not only achieved the promised targets and volumes, but it has exceeded vaccine production targets. ” “We need to move from large-scale vaccination to mass vaccination,” he stressed.
Putin further stated that “no other coronavirus drug has the level of protection and the degree of safety that Sputnik V demonstrated” and called for determining the effectiveness of the vaccine “in conditions of many strains.” “A thorough investigation needs to be done,” he added.
Putin’s words have come on a day when Russia has broken the barrier of 63,000 coronavirus deaths after adding more than 550 deaths over the past day, according to data released by the Russian coronavirus operations center.
The agency noted that 22,850 cases and 566 deaths have been detected in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 3,471,053 and 63,370, respectively, since the start of the pandemic, with infections detected during the last day in the 85 regions that make up the country.
Thus, he detailed that the capital, Moscow, is again listed as the city with the most new cases, with 4,320, followed by St. Petersburg, with 3,003, and the province of Moscow, with 1,189. During the last day 28,658 people have been discharged, bringing the total to 2,854,088 since the start of the pandemic.
For its part, the national consumer protection office (Rospotrebnadzor) has pointed out that there are currently 616,174 people under observation and has estimated at 94,600,000 coronavirus tests performed in the country, as reported by the Russian news agency Sputnik.
The Russian government on Monday gave permission for the start of clinical trials of the ‘light’ version of the Russian coronavirus vaccine, called Sputnik V, according to a document from the Ministry of Health. “The trials will start on February 8, 2021 and end on December 31, 2021,” he recounts.
Putin had previously indicated that there is a ‘light’ version of the Sputnik V vaccine and pointed out that it will have a shorter effect, but with the possibility of vaccinating more people.
In this regard, the director of the Gamaleya Research Center, Alexander Ginzburg, has detailed that this new vaccine gives immunity in three weeks and maintains it for between three and four months, while arguing that the main goal is reduce the number of deaths in countries with a very high death toll.