Russia approves third COVID-19 vaccine for public use

The Russian government has approved for use CoviVac, its third COVID-19 vaccine.

During a government meeting broadcast on Saturday, Mikhail Mishustin, the country’s prime minister, announced that CoviVac has been registered and would be available for use by the Russian population by March.

“Today we note that a third vaccine, CoviVac, has been registered,” Mishustin said.

“And already in mid-March, the first 120,000 doses will be distributed within the civilian circulation.

Russia became the first country to register a Covid-19 vaccine in August 2020.

Already, the Sputnik V jab has been authorized in more than two dozen countries around the world.

Although still struggling with the number of coronavirus cases and high mortality rate, the effectiveness of Sputnik V was confirmed by the Lancet medical journal earlier in February.

In October, Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, had announced that the country had registered its second vaccine, EpiVacCorona, which health officials had said would enter mass production this month.

According to Mishustin, Russia had produced 10 million doses of Sputnik and 80,000 batches of the EpiVacCorona vaccine developed by the Siberian Vektor laboratory.

CoviVac was produced by the state-run Chumakov Centre based in Moscow, which employed a different method of development from Sputnik and EpiVacCorona, using an inactive virus.

The vaccine which has been recommended for people below 60 years of age, is due to complete the final stage clinical trial with 3,000 participants in March.

With the introduction of the third vaccine, the prime minister said: “Today Russia is the only country in which there are already three vaccines for the prevention of Covid infection.”