Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered authorities to begin mass vaccinations against COVID-19 from next week in Russia, as per Reuters report. The Russian President order has come on the day the United Kingdom (UK) approved Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against coronavirus for roll out as early as next week. In August this year, Russia become the first country to approve indigenously made Sputnik V vaccine for coronavirus. However, it is not yet clear which vaccine will Russia give to its citizens as president gives nod for mass vaccination.
Meanwhile, Russia on Tuesday confirmed 26,402 Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total caseload to 2,322,056, the federal response centre said. Many of Russia’s new infections have been reported in Moscow, with 6,524 new cases in the past day, raising the cumulative count for the capital to 612,248, Xinhua news agency reported.
Since the start of the pandemic, a total of 40,464 people have died in Russia from the disease with a record number of 569 deaths registered over the past day. The number of recoveries increased by 24,763 to 1,803,467.
Russia currently ranks fourth globally and first in Europe for the total number of infections. The country has so far conducted more than 76.7 million tests.
