“He said he will be vaccinated, he made this decision and was waiting until all formalities are completed,” the spokesman was quoted as saying to Rossiya 1 TV Channel on its website.

Russia launched a voluntary vaccination programme with the Russia-made Sputnik V vaccine earlier in December, starting with the most vulnerable groups in Moscow.

People over the age of 60 may begin to apply for shots on Monday, Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on his website on Sunday, the day after the Russian health ministry said the vaccine was approved for use by elderly people after a separate trial.

68-year-old Putin said earlier that the Russian vaccine was effective and safe and he saw no reason not to be vaccinated adding that he was waiting until it became available.

Since the start of the coronavirus outbreak in Russia, Putin has mainly worked remotely, held meetings via videolink and limited travel.

He said in August that one of his daughters had taken part in the clinical trial of the vaccine and felt well afterwards.

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The move, announced on Wednesday, came after Russia said on October that its domestically produced Sputnik V vaccine was 92 percent effective at preventing coronavirus.

Teachers and medics will be the first to receive shots. President Putin said that the country will produce two million doses of the vaccine within the next few days.

“Let’s agree on this – you will not report to me next week, but you will start mass vaccination … let’s get to work already,” he told Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova.

The Kremlin earlier gave assurances that Russians were first in line to be vaccinated, with Moscow also discussing supply deals with other countries.

With 2,347,401 confirmed infections as of Wednesday, Russia has the fourth-largest number of COVID-19 cases in the world behind the United States, India and Brazil.

It has recorded 41,053 deaths related to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.

On December 2 authorities recorded 589 new daily deaths tied to the virus and 25,345 new infections.

The country’s overall rise in cases has slowed after witnessing a high on November 27. Instead of imposing mass lockdown during the second wave of infections, the officials opted for targeted regional curbs.

Museums, theatres and concert halls would be closed to the public in St Petersburg of over 5million people for the duration of Russia’s New Year holidays from December 30 to January 10.

Putin statement comes hours after the United Kingdom approved the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for use that will be rolled out from early next week.

Sputnik V- named after the Soviet-era satellite is in third and final stage of clinical trials involving around 40,000 volunteers.

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In India, an expert panel at the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has asked Dr Reddy’s Laboratories to submit a revised protocol for conducting both phase 2 and phase 3 human clinical trials for the Russian vaccine against Covid-19, Sputnik V.
The Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical company had applied to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) late last week, seeking permission to conduct phase-3 human clinical trials of the Russian vaccine.

According to reports, India’s drug regulator has refused the proposal from Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd to conduct a large study in the country to evaluate Russia’s Sputnik-V Covid-19 vaccine and has asked it to first test the vaccine in a smaller trial.

The reason for the setback happened after the recommendations by the expert panel of the CDSCO. They noted that safety and immunogenicity data from early-stage studies being conducted overseas is small, with no inputs available on Indian participants.

India’s move comes as a setback for Russia’s plan to roll-out the vaccine even before full trials show how well it works, while pushing back its efforts to win approval for the vaccine in the country that leads the world on average number of new infections.

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The total case tally in the country now stands at 5,646,011 including 9,68,377 active cases, 45,87,614 cured/discharged/migrated and 90,020 deaths, Health Ministry’s latest update informed.

Reporting more cases of recovered ones over fresh infections for five consecutive days, India also recorded over one lakh recoveries for the first time on September 22.

India reported its lowest daily tally of coronavirus cases in almost a month on Tuesday as it prepares for clinical trials of a potential Russian vaccine in the next few weeks.

Drugmaker Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd said it could begin late-stage trials of a vaccine within the next few weeks. Indian trials of the Sputnik-V vaccine candidate, being developed by Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, will enroll 1,000-2,000 participants and be conducted at multiple government and private hospitals across the country.

The coronavirus pandemic appears to be accelerating worldwide, with new cases soaring last week to a new seven-day high of almost two million, even as new deaths decreased, WHO statistics showed. The World Health Organization said that during the week ending on September 20, 1,998,897 new cases of the novel coronavirus were registered around the world.

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The Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoH&FW) officials are maintaining that the COVID-19 case fatality rate (CFR) is below 2% and are trying to bring it down to under 1%.

Trials for the Oxford University’s vaccine, developed in collaboration with AstraZeneca, will begin in India on Wednesday. Six volunteers will be administered doses at Pune’s Bharati Vidyapeeth medical college and hospital. This is phase-2 of the trial, as it is not mandatory to conduct phase-1 trials in India, where the vaccine’s safety is assessed.

The Center is in talks with Russia over its vaccine for Covid-19, called Sputnik-V. “As far as Sputnik-V vaccine is concerned, India and Russia are in communication. Some initial information has been shared,” Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said at a press conference.

Fresh guidelines for Unlock 4.0 are expected to be announced in the coming days. The Metro service in Delhi NCR, suspended since March 22 due to the pandemic, is likely to resume in September.

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