Kazakhstan To Start Using Own Vaccine For Vaccination Against COVID-19 On April 26 - Gov't

NUR-SULTAN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd April, 2021) SULTAN, April 22 (Sputnik) - Kazakhstan will start administering its home-made vaccine, QazVac, to inoculate against COVID-19 starting April 26, the government press office said on Thursday.

In October 2020, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev directed scientists to develop Kazakhstan's own vaccine. The first batch was produced by Kazakhstan's Research Institute for Biological Safety Problems.

"The first 50,000 QazVac jabs will be distributed to 'SK-Farmatsiya' hubs and then delivered to the health ministry offices' warehouses in all regions of the country. The vaccination of population with QazVac vaccine will begin on April 26," the statement said.

According to it, the country plans to produce another 50,000 jabs in May and will increase the output capacity to 600,000 doses a month in the future.

The ministry also said that the World Health Organization has registered QazVac vaccine, whose "full safety was proved."�

Deputy Prime Minister Yeraly Tugzhanov took part on Thursday in a ceremony for the shipment of the vaccine's first batch, mentioning that creation of the vaccine "allows our country enter the top-five of countries of the world that developed their own vaccines against the coronavirus."

The country already uses Russia's Sputnik V. According to the official data, about 800,000 people have so far received the first shot and around 130,000 underwent the full inoculation in Kazakhstan.