Russia has authorized the storage of Sputnik V to …

The authorities of Russia approved this Thursday on storage of Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus at normal refrigerator temperatures between 2 ° C and 8 ° C. “He the manufacturer succeeded in ensuring the stability of the vaccine during transport and storage at temperatures between 2 ° C and 8 ° C ”, announced the Russian Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko, during a virtual meeting with experts.

Murashko also pointed out that this cold chain is the normal chain for preserving vaccines. Until, the Sputnik V vaccine, developed by the Nikolai Gamaleya Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology with funding from the Russian Center for Direct Investment (RDIF), can be stored at -18 ° C for 6 months.

The holder of the health portfolio clarified that the manufacturer can now also offer batches of vaccines on the market with storage temperatures between 2 and 8 degrees above zero.

For Russia, the largest country in the world with eleven time zones, it was a challenge to move the Sputnik V vaccine to the most remote places. The vaccination campaign started on December 5 and to date one million people have already been vaccinated.

The Russian government said on Wednesday that it plans to administer the vaccine to nearly 70 million people, half of its population, by June of this year.

Like all coronavirus vaccines developed so far, inoculation consists of two doses which are administered with an interval of 21 days: the first is based on human adenovirus type 26; and the second, in recombinant human adenovirus type 5.

Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov said pharmaceutical companies would produce a total of seven million doses in January, 11 million in February, 15 million in March, and assured that the production capacities of domestic companies would make it possible to fully cover the demand of the health system.

Regarding shipments to other countries, Manturov noted that some pharmaceutical factories in Belarus, South Korea, China, India and Kazakhstan will be able to ship up to 350 million doses per year.

So far, more than 50 countries have already requested 1.2 billion doses of Sputnik V, according to reports from the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF).

Russia has recorded a decrease in infections since the end of December 2020, with a cumulative of more than 3.6 million people infected, of which more than 3 million have recovered and 67,832 have died.