Kazakh President Gets Vaccine To Boost Lagging Jab Drive

Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has been vaccinated against the coronavirus, his spokesman said Tuesday, after the leader criticised his Central Asian country's slow rollout of Russia's Sputnik V jab

NurSultan, Kazakhstan, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 6th Apr, 2021 ) :Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has been vaccinated against the coronavirus, his spokesman said Tuesday, after the leader criticised his Central Asian country's slow rollout of Russia's Sputnik V jab.

Kazakhstan was the first foreign state to begin domestic production of the Russian-developed vaccine, but the ex-Soviet country's inoculation drive has not gone according to plan.

Last Thursday Tokayev said that a lack of available vaccines had "forced (Kazakhstan) to agree to unfavourable commercial and financial conditions to accelerate deliveries".

He did not offer details on the deliveries.

On Tuesday, his spokesman Berik Uali said Tokayev had been administered a dose of Sputnik V manufactured at a factory in the central Kazakh city of Karaganda and had "no side effects at all".

"The head of state again urges all citizens to take the vaccine at the earliest opportunity," Uali said in a Facebook post, which did not include photos of the procedure.

"This is the only way to protect yourself and your loved ones.

" Also on Tuesday, Prime Minister Askar Mamin said that Kazakhstan would aim to vaccinate six million people, out of its population of 19 million, by the end of June.

Supply and production snags will test that goal.

Immediately after Tokayev's criticism of Kazakhstan's vaccination drive last Thursday, the country's largest city and the epicentre of its outbreak Almaty saw a surge in vaccinations of the general public before supplies ran low and the government restricted access to vulnerable groups.

And like its Central Asian neighbours and Russia, Kazakhstan has had to contend with public scepticism surrounding the vaccine since launching its inoculation campaign in February.

The government had also planned to begin mass inoculations with its own national jab QazCovid-in in March but has set back the vaccine's rollout.

Before electing to go with Sputnik V, Tokayev had in January pledged to use his country's homegrown vaccine.

Kazakhstan has reported 256,837 coronavirus cases and 3,129 deaths from the virus.