MOSCOW, May 26. /TASS/. The Russian government has submitted to the lower chamber of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, a bill to include an anti-coronavirus jab into the national vaccination calendar.
The bill, uploaded to the State Duma’s database on Tuesday, adds novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) to the national vaccination calendar, along with hepatitis B, diphtheria, whooping cough, measles, rubella, polio, tetanus, tuberculosis, mumps, haemophilus influenza disease, pneumococcal infection and flu.
According to the bill’s authors, the Russian Health Ministry believes that no less than 60% of Russia’s adult population should be vaccinated in order "to have firm control over the epidemic process and stabilize the novel coronavirus situation."
"The changes stipulated by the bill would allow spending Russia’s federal budget funds on purchases of medicines for prevention of the novel coronavirus infection," the bill’s summary says.
According to the document, the Russian authorities plan to vaccinate 69.5 million people in 2021, or over 60% of the country’s adult population.
The effort will require purchasing over 29.7 million doses of the vaccine and additional financing of about 26.5 billion rubles for the purpose. About 4.35 billion rubles will be spent on the EpiVacCorona vaccine (4.7 million doses), about 4.3 billion rubles - on CoviVac (4.5 million doses), 16.7 billion rubles - on Sputnik V (17.5 million doses) and 1.1 billion rubles - on Sputnik Light (3 million doses).
While drafting Russia’s federal budget for 2022 and 2023-2024, the Health Ministry will adjust its request for additional financing in accordance with the current epidemiological situation.