Covid-19 vaccination for at-risk groups kicks off in Moscow

Coronavirus vaccination has kicked off in Moscow for at-risk groups including medical, educational and social workers, the city's coronavirus monitoring centre said on Saturday.

"Coronavirus vaccination began today at 70 city public health centres for those from major at-risk groups, who contact large numbers of people at work. Those include medical, educational and social workers," the statement said, according to a TASS News Agency report.

The development comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin tasked the government and regional authorities to kick off free voluntary vaccination campaign against the coronavirus infection.

Applications are being received on mos.ru from people aged between 18 and 60, registered with the city's public health centers.


However, people with certain chronic diseases would not be able to get the shot, and those with acute respiratory infections will have to wait two weeks after recovering from it.

In addition, volunteers involved in post-registration vaccine trials cannot be vaccinated though those who got a placebo during trials will be provided with an opportunity to receive the vaccine once trials are over, said the report.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova on Friday said that all Russian regions will join the vaccination campaign against the coronavirus infection at the end of next week.


She noted that vaccination against the novel coronavirus infection will take 42 days and those inoculated will have to observe precautions during this period not to catch the infection.

Thus, they will have to refrain from visiting crowded places, wear face masks, use sanitizers, minimize contacts and refrain from drinking alcohol or taking immunosuppressant drugs.

Russia has developed two Covid-19 vaccines, namely Sputnik V and EpiVacCorona. A third one being developed so far is scheduled to have its clinical trials completed by the end of 2020.


At least 28,782 additional people in Russia have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, which marked the highest single-day spike in the number of confirmed cases since the onset of the pandemic earlier this year, health authorities said on Saturday.

The new figure recorded in the last 24 hours has increased the country's overall caseload to 2,431,731, TASS News Agency quoted the anti-coronavirus crisis centre as saying in its latest update. - IANS