Moscow: In a significant development in the global fight against coronavirus, Russia has started releasing ‘Sputnik V’, the world’s first registered COVID-19 vaccine, to the general public, the country’s media reported citing the Health Ministry.
The vaccine developed by Russia’s Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has been released to the general public as developers prepare to conduct large-scale clinical trials while administering the shot to civilians.
“The first batch of the ‘Gam-Covid-Vac’ [Sputnik V] vaccine for the prevention of the new coronavirus infection, developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Ministry of Health of Russia, has passed the necessary quality tests in the laboratories of Roszdravnadzor [medical device regulator] and has been released into civil circulation,” the Ministry said in a statement.
The first deliveries of Sputnik V would be “small for the time being, it added.
Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko had earlier announced that the medical workers and teachers would be the first to get the vaccine.
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