President Vladimir Putin revealed on Wednesday that he received the Sputnik V vaccine, developed in his country, earlier this year, stressing the importance of inoculation amid a spike in new COVID-19 infections and deaths in Russia.
During an annual television program in which the president answers questions from Internet users, Putin expressed his hope that the vaccination campaign could prevent a new national closure of activities.
Russia reported 21,042 new cases and 669 deaths in one day on Wednesday, which is similar to what the government has been reporting daily since June 24. The new number of reported deaths set another record for the country in a single day.
Although he reaffirmed his position that vaccination should be voluntary, Putin insisted that the decisions of local authorities in various regions of Russia – which made injections mandatory for some workers – were in accordance with the law and necessary to contain the outbreak. and avoid a national confinement.
The “actions of our colleagues in some regions are aimed at avoiding the need for a quarantine, in which entire companies close and people are left without their jobs, without their salary,” said the president.
Russian authorities have attributed the upturn, which began in early June, to the relaxed attitude of Russians when it comes to taking precautions, the increasing prevalence of more contagious variants and the slow progress of vaccinations.
Although Russia was one of the first countries to announce and distribute a coronavirus vaccine, just over 15% of its population has received at least one dose.
Russian regulatory authorities licensed Sputnik V in August 2020 and came under fire, both inside and outside the country, because the drug had only been tested on a few dozen people at the time.
However, the criticisms were silenced by a report in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet, published this year and which stated that large-scale trials had shown the safety of the vaccine, with an efficacy rate of 91% against the virus.
Putin said he had shied away from saying which vaccine he had chosen from the Russian-developed drugs that were available at the time.
“In effect they have asked me not to say which vaccine I received so as not to create competitive advantages for one or the other,” Putin said on Wednesday’s program. “But I see that there are many questions.”
Putin received his first dose in late March and his second in mid-April, both out of public view.
The Russian president said on Wednesday that he had not consulted his doctors on the matter, but considered the decisions that his acquaintances had made, and that he had opted for Sputnik V, which provided the longest-lasting protection against the virus, he reported.
“Especially since our armed forces are being vaccinated with Sputnik V, and I am the commander-in-chief after all,” he laughed.
Amid the rebound, 18 Russian regions – from Moscow to St. Petersburg to the remote eastern region of Sakhalin – have made the vaccine mandatory this month for employees in various sectors, including government offices, retail, healthcare, education, restaurants and other services.
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