Russia begins production of Sputnik V, its COVID-19 vaccine

Moscow: Russia has begun production of the first batch of vaccines against COVID-19, its health ministry said in a statement released on Saturday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday announced the world's first registered vaccine against the novel coronavirus, Sputnik V, which is named after the space satellite launched by Moscow in 1957.

The vaccine was created by the Gamaleya Scientific Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, a medical institute located near Moscow, Xinhua news agency reported.

Russia will offer the vaccine to other countries once its own citizens are vaccinated, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said Wednesday, adding that doubts over the effectiveness of the vaccine are unfounded.

Earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) had said that the vaccine approved by Russia was not among the nine that it considers in the advanced stages of testing.

Russia begins production of Sputnik V, its COVID-19 vaccine — WHO Chief Dr Tedros Adhanom

We don't have sufficient information at this point to make a judgment on the Russia vaccine, Dr Bruce Aylward, a senior adviser to WHO's director-general, had said.

We're currently in conversation with Russia to get additional information to understand the status of that product, the trials that have been undertaken and then what the next steps might be.

So far, Russia has tallied a total of 917,884 cases, with 15,617 deaths and 729,411 recoveries.

(With inputs from agencies)

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