MOSCOW, December 29. /TASS/. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday thanked his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for his contribution to the launch of the novel coronavirus vaccination campaign in Venezuela.

"After three months of serious and important work with our Russian brothers, we signed an agreement today to purchase the first 10 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine. I thank President Putin for this important step towards the launch of the vaccination campaign in Venezuela," Maduro said in a Twitter post.

In a Telesur TV broadcast earlier in the day, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez announced that the country had signed an agreement to purchase the Russian vaccine.

Besides, it was reported that Caracas received 2,000 doses of the Russian vaccine to take part in Phase 3 clinical trials. Rodriguez also spoke in favor of producing it on the territory of Venezuela.

On December 12, Nicolas Maduro Guerra, the son of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, was among the first in the country to receive the Russian coronavirus vaccine.

The Venezuelan government reported the first two coronavirus cases in the republic on March 13, and a state of emergency was declared on the same day. On March 17, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro imposed the quarantine across the country. Since the start of the pandemic, Venezuela has registered 112,636 coronavirus cases and 1,018 deaths.

Russia registered the world’s first vaccine against the novel coronavirus on August 11. The vaccine, dubbed Sputnik V, was developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Health Ministry, and its clinical trials were successfully completed in June-July. The Russian Health Ministry said on August 15 that production of the vaccine had been launched. The third, post-registration, stage of clinical tests began in Moscow on September 7. Volunteers received the first dose of the vaccine on September. As many as 40,000 people are involved in the trials, with 10,000 of them being given a placebo. According to the interim test results, the vaccine’s efficiency exceeds 95% on the 42nd day after inoculation with the first dose in case the patient received the second dose as well.