MOSCOW, June 8. /TASS/. Several thousand foreigners are ready to come to Russia to get inoculated with the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus infection, Executive Director of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) Maya Lomidze told the Russia-1 TV channel on Monday.
"The number of those wishing to get the vaccine, we’re mostly talking about Sputnik V here, is rather large. It is still hard for us to say that this is a potential flow of millions [of people] but this is several thousand people from different countries," she said.
Speaking at a meeting with representatives of the international investment community and the foreign producers of the anti-coronavirus Sputnik V jab within the framework of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russian President Vladimir Putin assured that Russia would create all the necessary conditions for the foreign citizens to get inoculated against the coronavirus infection on its territory. Also, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reported that the Foreign Ministry had been receiving requests from those foreigners who would like to get vaccinated with the Russian Sputnik V shot against the coronavirus infection.
On August 11, 2020, Russia became the first country worldwide to register the Sputnik V vaccine. The jab has already been registered by the regulators of over 60 countries with the total population surpassing 1.5 bln people. The efficacy of the jab at the level of 91.6% was confirmed by the data published in the leading medical journal The Lancet. On March 4, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) reported that it began the rolling review of the vaccine, however, the certification of the Russian vaccine has not yet been approved by the European structures.