"There is no more symbolic opportunity to celebrate Russia Day today, 12 June, than receiving at the Maiquetia 'Simon Bolivar' International Airport another 500,000 vaccines @sputnikvaccine reinforcing our solidarity with the brotherly people of Venezuela", Sergei Melik-Bagdasarov wrote on Twitter on Saturday.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced at the end of May that coronavirus vaccinations would be stepped up in the month of June and that the Sputnik V vaccine would be used to give shots to people over 60 with underlying health conditions.
Venezuela started its mass coronavirus vaccination campaign earlier this year after it received the first batch of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine in February.
In August 2020, Russia became the first country in the world to register a vaccine against the coronavirus, dubbed Sputnik V, and developed by the Gamaleya research institute. So far, the vaccine has been approved for emergency use in 67 countries.
According to an interim analysis from a trial published in The Lancet, the vaccine has 91.6 percent efficacy. Meanwhile, the Gamaleya National Research Centre of Epidemiology and Microbiology and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) have reported that Sputnik V has 97.6 percent efficacy.
