Uzbekistan Receives 1st Batch Of Russia's Sputnik V Vaccine - Health Ministry

TASHKENT (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd April, 2021) Uzbekistan on Friday received the first batch of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, the country's Health Ministry said.

"Today the first batch of Sputnik V vaccine was delivered to our country. The delivery was carried out in cooperation with the Russian Direct Investment Fund," the ministry said on its Telegram channel.

The Russian vaccine, developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute, was approved for mass use in Uzbekistan on February 17.

"The certification process began only after receiving the necessary materials from the developer, in particular, the results of phase 3 of clinical trials of the vaccine," the statement said.

Uzbekistan launched mass vaccination campaign against COVID-19 on April 1. People over 65 years old and medical workers are the first to receive their shots. The Central Asian country is currently using the vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and China's Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical company. In March, Uzbekistan received 1.6 million doses of these vaccines and by now nearly 490,000 nationals have been inoculated.

The Uzbek authorities plan to vaccinate up to 7 million people or 20 percent of the population by the end of 2021.