Russia’s Health Minister announced on Saturday that more than 800,000 citizens have received the country’s coronavirus vaccine, with more than 1.5 million doses distributed.
Reuters reported that the TASS news agency quoted Mikhail Murashko as saying that starting January 1, people who received the Sputnik V vaccine will receive an electronic verification certificate, with the Ministry of Health maintaining a database of all vaccinated people.
Russia has the world’s fourth highest number of COVID-19 cases, with nearly 3.2 million people infected and more than 57,000 deaths from the virus, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
However, Russian officials said the country on Monday the death toll is three times higher than initially reported, meaning the true number of COVID-19 fatalities could be more than 186,000 people.
According to Reuters, the two doses of Sputnik V use different components and must be administered 21 days apart.
The Russian vaccine, which began rollout in early December, was found to be 91 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 after two doses, according to developers.
However, the vaccination has received skepticism from some health experts as the Kremlin announced the registration of the vaccine before all clinical trials were completed.
Despite this, the Russian vaccine has already been distributed to other countries.
On Tuesday, Argentina and Belarus started their rollout of the Sputnik V vaccine, with approximately 300,000 Argentines expected to be vaccinated. The Latin American country expects to receive 20 million doses within the next two months.
Venezuela also signed a contract this week to get enough doses of the Sputnik V vaccine to inoculate 10 million people, Venezuelan vice president Delcy Rodríguez said, according to Reuters. The country began administering doses as part of a clinical trial in October.
Russian state media reported last week that president Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin The biggest example of media crime in 2020 is … Russia steps up pressure on critic Navalny with new investigation Russia accuses monk of inciting suicide by sermons denying COVID-19 MORE used to be scheduled to receive the vaccine, despite the earlier suggestion that there was no reason to get him vaccinated.
Putin previously said one of his daughters took part in a clinical trial for the Sputnik V vaccine in August.