MINSK, March 25. /TASS/. Mass production of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine began in Belarus, the country's Health Ministry reported on Thursday.

The production has been launched at the site of the Belmedpreparaty republican unitary enterprise.

"Belmedpreparaty has begun bottling of the first commercial series of Sputnik V vaccine from the semi-product of Russia’s Generium company, which is a part of Pharmstandard," the ministry says.

According to General Director of Belmedpreparaty Sergey Belyaev, the vaccine can be used to vaccinate the population, starting "from the last ten days of April after the results of quality control are received."

"The volume of production in the future will be up to 500,000 doses of the drug per month," he said.

Belarus started vaccination of volunteers with the Russian vaccine on October 1, 2020, as part of post-registration studies. Belarus became the first state after Russia to officially register this vaccine. At the end of December, vaccination of medical workers began. Mass vaccination will begin in the country in April. It is expected that more than 5.5 million people will be vaccinated on a voluntary basis. The ministry said that joint production of the vaccine would be established on the territory of Belarus.

The Russian Federation also handed over the EpiVacCorona vaccine to the Health Ministry of Belarus. In February, Belarus received 100,000 doses of China’s Sinopharm vaccine.