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News > Venezuela

Russia to Resume Shipments of Sputnik V Vaccines to Venezuela

  • Health professionals vaccinate citizens against COVID-19, Venezuela, 2021.

    Health professionals vaccinate citizens against COVID-19, Venezuela, 2021. | Photo: Twitter/ @MinSaludVE

Published 1 September 2021
Opinion

Starting in October, Venezuela will extend COVID-19 vaccination to the population between three and 18 years of age thanks to the arrival of these doses. 

On Tuesday, Russia's Ambassador to Venezuela Serguei Melik-Bagdasarov confirmed that his country would resume shipping doses of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine to Venezuela.

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"Good news for our people. We congratulate the strategic alliance forged by President Nicolas Maduro with Russia to fight the pandemic,” Venezuela's Foreign Affairs Minister Felix Plasencia stated, adding that Russia has donated thousands of medical supplies and COVID-19 masks to his country.

In Dec. 2020, the Maduro administration signed an agreement with Russia for acquiring 10 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine, which proved to have an efficacy rate of 92 percent in clinical trials. Thanks to this agreement, Venezuela has received 1,430,000 Sputnik V doses in eight batches, the last of which arrived on June 12.

This vaccine has been distributed in Venezuela free of charge to the entire population, including foreign residents in this country. Russia has sold about 130 million Sputnik V vaccines to other 60 countries. 

This growing demand prompted delays in delivering second doses of the Sputnik V vaccine to Venezuela and other nations in July. However, Russia’s Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) assured that all temporary delays would be resolved in August since the volume of production of this vaccine is expected to increase significantly in September.

In addition to the Sputnik V vaccine, Venezuela acquired 1.8 billion doses of China’s Sinopharm vaccine and expects to receive 12 million Abdala vaccines from Cuba.

"Starting in October, we will extend vaccination to the population between three and 18 years of age thanks to the arrival of new doses," Maduro announced on Tuesday. So far, over 3,3 million Venezuelans, or about 11,7 percent of the population, have been fully immunized against the coronavirus.

As of Sept. 1, Venezuela had reported 335,233 COVID-19 cases and 4,026 related deaths, 16 of which were reported in the last 24 hours.

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