Anti-corona vaccination in MoscowPicture: AFP / Natalia KOLESNIKOVA
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Russia plans to start mass production of its second vaccine from February. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Tuesday that his government had made the equivalent of just under 22 million euros available for the production of the Epivaccorona vaccine. He was approved back in October, two months after the first vaccine, Sputnik V.
Epivaccorona was developed in a laboratory in the Novosibirsk region that had secretly researched biological warfare agents during the Cold War. According to the health supervisory authority Rospotrebnadsor, the vaccine has an effectiveness of one hundred percent.
Russia had started mass vaccination last week. Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin said on Monday that the corona situation has now “stabilized”. According to official information, more than 3.7 million people in the country have been infected with the virus, and more than 70,000 have died as a result of their infection.
Sputnik V has meanwhile also been approved in Iran. Foreign Minister Mohammad Jawad Zarif said after a meeting with his Russian colleague Sergei Lavrov in Moscow that his government hopes to acquire the Russian vaccine soon and start a “joint production”.
Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had previously banned the import of vaccines from the US and Great Britain, which he described as “absolutely untrustworthy”. Originally, Tehran wanted to wait for the green light from the WHO before purchasing the Russian vaccine.
© 2021 AFP
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