"The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, announces that Sputnik V, the Russian vaccine against coronavirus, has been registered by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus. Thus Belarus has become the first foreign country to officially register the vaccine", the sovereign wealth fund said in a press release.
Minister of Health Dmitry Pinevich said that Belarus will start vaccinating its citizens against COVID-19 with Russia's Sputnik V vaccine already in January.
Medical personnel, teachers and those working in trade sector will be the first in line to receive the vaccine, the minister added, stressing that the vaccine will be distributed free of charge.
Belarus began vaccinating volunteers on 1 October as part of Sputnik V clinical trials. In addition, Minsk took into account the data from the Phase III clinical trials of the vaccine in Russia, which demonstrated that the vaccine has the efficacy rate of 91.4 percent.
Sputnik V is the pioneer vaccine against the coronavirus — Russia officially registered it on 11 August. The vaccine, which is a two-component treatment based on the human adenovirus, is currently completing phase 3 clinical trials.
