HANOI, January 21. /TASS/. Russia has delivered to Laos a batch of the Sputnik V vaccine in order to register this preparation for use in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (LPDR), Russia’s Embassy in the LPDR told TASS on Thursday.

"Today, a delivery ceremony of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine took place at the Health Ministry of the LPDR. Laos joined a number of countries worldwide that made a decision to use the Russian vaccine in the fight against the coronavirus infection," the diplomatic agency noted.

According to the embassy, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) made an agreement with Laos’ Atlantic to deliver the preparation in a close cooperation with the Health Ministry of the LPDR. After the registration of Sputnik V in the LPDR is completed, Russia will deliver the necessary amount of vaccines by the end of the current year.

At the ceremony at the Health Ministry, Russian Ambassador to Laos Vladimir Kalinin noted that to date, about 1 mln Russian citizens have been inoculated with the Sputnik V preparation without any side effects. He reported that requests to purchase over 1.2 bln doses of the Sputnik V vaccine were received from more than 50 countries, including a number of the ASEAN states - Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. "Russia and Laos agreed on deliveries of 2 mln doses of the Sputnik V vaccine. This means that 25% of population of the LPDR will receive access to the effective and safe Russian vaccine," the diplomat stressed.

During the entire time since the beginning of the pandemic, only 41 cases of the coronavirus infection have been documented in Laos. To date, all infected have already recovered. Currently, over 2,500 people are under observation in 32 state quarantine centers.