MOSCOW, December 4. /TASS/. All Russian regions will join the vaccination campaign against the coronavirus infection at the end of next week, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova said on Friday.

"I would like to say that the vaccination campaign has already been launched in the Russian army, in the city of Moscow. By the end of the week, all regions of the country will join this campaign," she said, adding that President Vladimir Putin tasked the government and regional authorities to kick off free voluntary vaccination campaign against the coronavirus infection.

According to Golikova, vaccines will be supplied to the region along with production increase.

Population categories to be vaccinated first will be determined by the Russian health ministry. "I would like to repeat once again that first of all they will be people from the risk group, i.e. medical workers, teachers, care and community workers, law enforcers, and those employed with essential services," she said.

She noted that vaccination against the novel coronavirus infection will take 42 days and those inoculated will have to observe precautions during this period not to catch the infection. Thus, they will have to refrain from visiting crowded places, wear face masks, use sanitizers, minimize contacts and refrain from drinking alcohol or taking immunosuppressant drugs.

To date, 2,402,949 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 1,888,752 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 42,176 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.