{"id":90454,"date":"2021-03-23T18:32:26","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T18:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=177682"},"modified":"2021-03-23T18:32:26","modified_gmt":"2021-03-23T18:32:26","slug":"putin-gets-covid-19-vaccine-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/03\/23\/putin-gets-covid-19-vaccine-shot\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin Gets Covid-19 Vaccine Shot"},"content":{"rendered":"
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been vaccinated against COVID-19 and is feeling well, RIA said on March 23 citing the Kremlin, as authorities seek to encourage hesitant Russians to get the shot.<\/p>\n
The Kremlin said earlier on March 23 that it had deliberately decided not to reveal the name of the Russian-made vaccine which Putin chose to take.<\/p>\n
Putin had been criticized for being slow to get vaccinated in a country where there is widespread hesitance over the vaccine.<\/p>\n
So far, some 4.3 million people in Russia have received both doses of a two-shot vaccine, which is less than 5 percent of the country’s 146 million people, putting Russia behind many other countries in its rollout.<\/p>\n
Russia has the world’s fourth-highest number of coronavirus infections at 4.4 million, and the seventh-highest death toll from COVID-19 at 94,231.<\/p>\n
The country has developed three COVID-19 vaccines — Sputnik V by the Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow, EpiVacCorona, produced by the Vector Institute in Novosibirsk, and CoviVac, from the Chumakov Centre in St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n
In August, Russia approved the world\u2019s first COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, prompting scientists around the world to question its safety and efficacy because it was registered before the results of Phase 3 studies were made available.<\/p>\n
However, peer-reviewed, late-stage trial results published in The Lancet medical journal last month showed the two-dose regimen of Sputnik V was 91.6 percent effective against symptomatic COVID-19, about the same level as the leading Western-developed vaccines.<\/p>\n
Still, a recent survey by the Levada Center, an independent polling agency, showed that the number of Russians hesitant to get the Sputnik V shot grew in February to 62 percent from 58 percent in December.<\/p>\n
The EpiVacCorona and CoviVac vaccines also received regulatory approval before completing late-stage trials.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n