Belarus first country after Russia to start Sputnik-V vaccination

Belarus has become the first country after Russia to begin vaccination of people with Sputnik-V against Covid-19, Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said on Tuesday.

"Belarus becomes the first country in the world after Russia to start vaccination of its people against COVID-19 with #SputnikV vaccine," a tweet from the official handle of Sputnik-V stated.

The Sputnik-V vaccine has been developed and produced by the Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.

"We can officially confirm that according to the available data the vaccine is safe and effective, no serious or unexpected side effects have been revealed," Belarusian Healthcare Minister Dmitry Pinevich, was quoted by Belarus media earlier this month.

In a global race to beat Covid-19, scores of vaccines are being developed and a handful is in the final stages of testing, like Sputnik, Pfizer and Oxford.

On Monday, the Serum Institute of India's chief executive Adar Poonawalla announced that the rollout of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine is expected in January.

Other than Belarus, India too will be producing 300 million doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.

The efficacy of the Sputnik V vaccine has been claimed to be 91.4 per cent.

Belarus on Monday had reported 1,814 new COVID-19 cases that took its total to 188, 588.