ST. PETERSBURG, June 4. /TASS/. The threat of new COVID-19 outbreaks remains until access to vaccines is guaranteed on all continents, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on Friday.

"Until we guarantee widespread, universal access to COVID-19 vaccines on all continents, the threat of an epidemic and its new outbreaks won’t go anywhere," the president said.

Putin warned that there might be hotbeds of infection that present a threat to the entire planet.

According to him, the data provided by the IMF shows that over half of the COVID-19 vaccines produced globally go to high-revenue countries that cover only 16% of the global population.

The Russian leader noted that only 10% of the global population had been vaccinated against COVID-19 so far, and hundreds of millions do not have access to vaccines. "Today, only 10% of the global population are either fully vaccinated or took the first vaccine component, while hundreds of millions of people simply have no access to vaccines because their countries don’t have technologies, production capabilities and funds to procure vaccines," the president said.

Aid to countries with no access to vaccines still meager

Vladimir Putin proceeded saying that "assistance to the countries that have no possibility to vaccinate their population remains inadequate".

"The assistance to these countries from those who could do this, remains meager," Putin noted. 

Putin said that the politically motivated bans on access to safe vaccines against coronavirus were absurd. "Regretfully, as the saying goes - self comes first. This is how it also happens in the battle against the coronavirus infection on the global scope - either there is no significant assistance there where it should have been or, which is altogether absurd - we see politically motivated bans on the purchase of tested, efficient vaccines which have proved their absolute safety," Putin pointed out.

In the current situation, this looks like unwillingness to protect fellow countrymen against the threat of coronavirus. "This is also the case, and we are also facing this," he stated.

Putin orders to look into Covid vaccination of labor migrants in Russia

Russian president also ordered to look into matters of Covid vaccination for labor migrants coming into Russia.

"I ask the government, the regions and the business to jointly work out matters of vaccination of people who come to Russia within labor migration," he said, speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Putin noted that, for example, "there are many such specialists working in retail, construction, service industry and in utilities."

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum takes place between June 2 and 5. It takes place in the in-person formats with consideration of all epidemiological safety measures. TASS is the event’s informational partner and photo agency.