BUENOS AIRES, May 13. /TASS/. Argentine authorities expect the local Richmond laboratory to manufacture 2 mln doses of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in June, Minister of Health of the country Carla Vizzotti announced on Wednesday.

At the initial stage in June, the country may have 2 mln doses of the first and second components - 1 mln each, she said in an interview with Todo Noticias TV channel.

Argentina became the first Latin American country to officially register Sputnik V vaccine. This was done under the fast track procedure. Vaccination with a Russian drug in the country began on December 29, 2020.

Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine has already been registered by regulators in about 60 countries, with a total population of more than 1.5 bln people. More than 30 countries have begun mass vaccination with Sputnik V. The vaccine’s effectiveness at the level of 91.6% is confirmed by the publication of data in the leading medical journal The Lancet. On March 4, the European Medicines Agency announced the start of the procedure for the sequential examination of the Sputnik V vaccine. According to the forecasts of the regulator’s representative, registration can be completed by the end of May.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.