Authorities in Uzbekistan received the first batch of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, the press service of the country's Health Ministry reported on Friday.
"Today the first batch of Sputnik V vaccine was delivered to our country. The delivery was made with the assistance of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF)," the Ministry of Health said in a message on its Telegram channel.
The Ministry recalled that Sputnik V, developed by Russia's Gamaleya Scientific Center, was certified and approved for mass usage in Uzbekistan on February 17. "The certification process began only after receiving the necessary materials from the developers, in particular, the results of the third stage of clinical trials of the vaccine," the Ministry of Health noted.
According to the Ministry's Telegram channel, entrepreneur Alisher Usmanov financed half of the cost of the entire volume of Sputnik V procured.
On April 1, Uzbekistan launched a campaign to vaccinate the population against coronavirus. In the first stage (April), priority will be given to people over 65 and medical workers. Currently, Uzbeks are being vaccinated with AstraZeneca and a recombinant Chinese vaccine from Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical. In March only 1.6 million doses of these drugs were delivered to the republic, and so far nearly 490,000 people have been vaccinated.
The country's Health Ministry estimates that about 4 million people, or more than 11.5% of the country's population, will be vaccinated against COVID-19 in April-June. By the end of 2021, that number could rise to 7 million, or about 20% of the country's population. Tashkent plans to receive another 5.5 million doses of vaccines from China as well as AstraZeneca by the end of June.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: AP / TASS
Based on materials from RIA Novosti