Ambassador of Russia: The issue related to the supply of the  Sputnik-V vaccine to Armenia is being very actively worked out

ArmInfo. The issue related to the supply of the Sputnik-V vaccine to Armenia is being actively worked out. Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergei Kopyrkin stated this  on March 26 in an interview with reporters answering ArmInfo's  question.  

At the same time, he added that the issue is already  approaching the stage of practical implementation. At the same time,  the ambassador expressed hope that the delivery of the vaccine will  be carried out in a fairly short time. "In any case, we, for our  part, as an embassy, do our best to contribute to this," the diplomat  said.

Speaking about the possibilities of establishing vaccine production  locally, as, for example, it will be in Kyrgyzstan, Kopyrkin pointed  to the close dialogue between the Ministry of Health of Armenia and  the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which deals with vaccine issues.  "I do not have any specific information regarding the elaboration of  the production issue, but I know that this topic is very actively  discussed. And I hope that very soon the vaccine will arrive in  Armenia," the ambassador said, recalling that Russia has already sent  a batch of "Sputnik-V" to Armenia free of charge, which was applied.   To recall, the professional committee approved the use of three  coronavirus vaccines in Armenia: Sputnik V, AstraZeneca and Pfizer.  Armenia joined the COVAX FACILITY international initiative last year  in order to purchase a vaccine against coronavirus, which aims to  provide all interested countries with equal opportunities to purchase  a vaccine available on the market.

For example, a vaccine was proposed, developed by specialists from  the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford,  which has a relatively low efficiency - 70%, the American- German  joint production of Pfizer vaccine with an efficiency of 95%, the  American Moderna with an efficiency of more than 94%. In parallel,  Armenia was negotiating the purchase of the Russian Sputnik V  vaccine.

As ArmInfo previously reported, Armenia has not yet started mass  vaccination of the population. The Ministry of Health is still  negotiating on the procurement of vaccines for the new type of  coronavirus.  Over the past day, 5,525 coronavirus tests were carried  out in Armenia, of which the disease was detected in 1005 cases  (18.2%), 433 people recovered, 18 died. Since the outbreak of the  pandemic in Armenia, 188,446 cases of infection have been identified,  3,434 people have died from it.