President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro has on Sunday said that his government has agreed to buy 10 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19.
Maduro speaking at an event in Caracas which was broadcast on government television revealed that the vaccines will come in the first quarter of 2021, adding that “Venezuela will manufacture the Russian vaccine in the Venezuelan laboratories”.
It would be recalled that in August, Russia became the first country to register a vaccine against COVID-19, which it named Sputnik V, after the world’s first satellite launched from Russia into space in 1957.
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However, the announcement has been met with skepticism in the international community, Western scientists raised concerns over the speed of development of Russian vaccines, suggesting that researchers might be cutting corners after coming under pressure from the authorities to deliver.
Its developers reported initial test results showing the vaccine to be 92 per cent effective, two days after pharma giant Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech said Phase 3 results found their vaccine to be more than 90 per cent effective, inciting hope into the battle against the virus.
In early October, Venezuela began participating in the Sputnik V clinical trials phase, with some 2,000 volunteers participating — among them was Maduro’s son, Nicolas Maduro Guerra.
Since the pandemic was detected in Venezuela in March, the government has confirmed 96,933 infections and 848 deaths.
However, opposition figures and non-governmental organizations question the figures, saying that due to underreporting, they could be much higher.
AFP.
