COVID-19 vaccine: Russia begins inoculating volunteers with 'Sputnik V'

On September 8, Russia began administering the potential experimental vaccine Sputnik V to volunteers in Moscow, the capital's deputy mayor said in state-run media reports. The first set of participants have already had the vaccination at clinics in the capital, Deputy Mayor Anastasia Rakova, responsible for social development, said in a statement. Russia received approvals to conduct large-scale clinical trials to administer the shot to civilians. The first batch of the Gam-COVID-Vac (Sputnik V) vaccine has qualified the safety and the quality tests and was released into civil circulation, the Health Ministry said in a statement. 

According to state-run agencies, the high-profile Russians have already been vaccinated, including President Vladimir Putin’s daughter, nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. Russian Sputnik V preparation was developed by the Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Healthcare Ministry and has been produced jointly with the RDIF. At least 40,000 folks from the capital were asked to administer the Sputnik V shots in two doses with a 21-day interval, the Russian health ministry website wrote.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on September 8 that the president would “inform about it himself” if he would like to be vaccinated, state media reports confirmed. 

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35,000 Muscovites given dosages

According to the Health Ministry site, the volunteers were participating in a “post-registration study” of the vaccine. It mentioned that the participants were expected not to have been diagnosed with COVID-19, no latest contact with a person who tested positive and must not have antibodies due to initial undetected recovery form the coronavirus. With respect to women, Russia's health ministry emphasized that those volunteering should not be pregnant or attempting for a child.

More than 35,000 Muscovites have already been administered the dosage according to Moscow metropolis’s web site, which also mentions that the volunteers would be health monitored using an app. In a separate statement, cited by the state reports, Peskov mentioned that Russia's high-risk teams, such as the medics and lecturers, will also obtain the coronavirus vaccine with due voluntary approvals and also will be monitored.

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