Russian President Vladimir Putin has not been inoculated with the Sputnik V vaccine against novel coronavirus even as the authorities claimed it 90 per cent efficacious, as per media reports.
This comes months after Putin’s daughter received the first vaccine shot and later it was given to some Russian frontline health workers, teachers, and several top-level officials.
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that the President cannot get a vaccine that is yet to finish the final stage of trials.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov briefed media and said, quoted as saying in the CNN report: “The President cannot use an uncertified vaccine.”
He added: “Mass vaccination has not started yet. And, of course, the head of state cannot take part in vaccination as a volunteer. It’s impossible.”
Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine priced “lower” at $10/dose
Peskov informed that the vaccine trials will wind up soon and then the President will make the decision whether to take the vaccine “if he considers it necessary”.
68-year-old Putin falls in the high-risk group. Russia began its vaccine trials for the first group of volunteers aged 60 and over on October 28, according to the Russian state news agency TASS.
The comes as Sputnik V’s developers announced that its vaccine is effective, cheap, and easy to transport.
The Gamaelya institute released a press statement claiming that its vaccine is 91.4 per cent effective in preventing infections.
In a separate statement released on Tuesday, the Gamaelya institute stated that one dose of the vaccine will cost less than $10 on international markets. This they said was “two or more times cheaper than mRNA vaccines with similar efficacy levels”.