MOSCOW, April 10. /TASS/. Covid-19 causes twice as many complications as seasonal influenza and other respiratory diseases, so, vaccination will help avoid not only infection but also serious complications, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said on Saturday.

"The novel coronavirus infection has practically twice as many complications, neurological, including psychiatric, as seasonal flu and other acute respiratory diseases. Vaccination is what helps avoid so many problems not only in the course of the disease but also its consequences," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel.

He stressed that the Russian coronavirus vaccines are efficient and safe.

According to the minister, men older than 35 typically develop post-Covid-19 complications twice as often as women of the same age.

By today, three anti-coronavirus vaccines have been registered in Russia. They are Sputnik V (Gam-covid-vac), developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Health Ministry, the world’s first vaccine against the novel coronavirus; Epivaccorona, an epitopic vaccine developed by the Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology; and CoviVac, developed by the Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune and Biological Products of the Russian Academy of Science. All the three are two-component vaccines.

Mass vaccination against Covid-19 kicked off in Russia on January 18.