NUR-SULTAN, August 2. /TASS/. The pharmaceutical plant in Kazakhstan’s Karaganda is ready to manufacture the Russian Sputnik Light coronavirus vaccine after an agreement to this effect is reached with Russia’s Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), the press service of the Karaganda pharmaceutical plant told TASS on Monday.

"We have sent a corresponding inquiry to the RDIF and are waiting for a response. On our part, we are ready to begin the production of Sputnik Light at our facilities. Advanced equipment, highly qualified employees and technological capacities of our plant make it possible to manufacture anti-virial medicines of any complexity," the press service said.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said earlier he had asked the government to look at buying the Russian Sputnik Light vaccine and organizing its production inside the country.

By now, the Karaganda plant has manufactured five million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine. Its press service said on August 2 that the plant had signed another agreement with SK-Farmatsiya, Kazakhstan’s distributor of medicines, on supplies of two million Sputnik V doses in August-September.

Vaccination with Russia-manufactured Sputnik V vaccine kicked off on February 1. The domestically produced Sputnik V vaccine has been used since late February. Apart from that, the Kazakh vaccine QazVac has been used since late April. Also in late April, Kazakhstan’s National Welfare Fund bought one million Hayat-Vax vaccine manufactured by China’s Sinophram. The first batch of 500,000 doses of the Chinese Sinovac Biotech’s CoronaVac vaccine reached the country in early June. Russia’s Sputnik Light was registered in Kazakhstan in mid-July.

As many as 5,429,636 people have been inoculated with the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine and 3,837,063 of them have received both doses.