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Coronavirus pandemic

Russia’s Sputnik V is world’s second vaccine in terms of national approvals

The ranking is topped by AstraZeneca

© EPA-EFE/Zoltan Mathe

MOSCOW, March 5. /TASS/. Russia’s Sputnik V anti-coronavirus vaccine is the world’s second in terms of approvals for use from national regulators, as follows from a tweet posted on the Sputnik V official account on Friday.

"SputnikV is now the world's second most popular CovidVaccine in terms of regulatory approvals," it reads.

#SputnikV is now the world's second most popular #CovidVaccine in terms of regulatory approvals. Thank you for this vote of confidence! pic.twitter.com/dYYqLYUYs8
— Sputnik V (@sputnikvaccine) March 5, 2021

The ranking is topped by the AstraZeneca vaccine. The Pfizer vaccine follows Sputnik V.

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Russia was the world’s first to register an anti-coronavirus vaccine on August 11, 2020. The vaccine, developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Health Ministry, was given the name Sputnik V. It is a vector vaccine based on the human adenovirus.

In early February 2020, The Lancet, a world-acclaimed medical journal, published the results of the third phase of Sputnik V clinical tests. The vaccine has proved to be among the world’s safest and most efficient preparations. Thus, its efficacy is estimated at 91.6% and 91.8% among volunteers older than 60. Ninety-eight percent of volunteers developed antibodies to the coronavirus.

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