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Coronavirus pandemic

Kazakhstan in talks with Russia on delivery of Sputnik Light vaccine

According to Kazakhstan’s Health Minister Alexei Tsoi, the volume of possible supplies has not been determined yet

NUR-SULTAN, November 23. / TASS /. Kazakhstan’s authorities are negotiating with Russia for possible supply of the Sputnik Light COVID-19 jab, Health Minister Alexei Tsoi stated on Tuesday.

"We are currently working this out. We have asked our Russian colleagues for the possible delivery of the Sputnik Light COVID-19 vaccine," the Kazakhstani health minister told TASS.

According to Tsoi, the volume of possible supplies has not been determined yet. "We have asked Russia about the volumes it can produce since there is also a need for the country’s own market. As soon as we receive a commercial offer, <…> a substantive discussion will be held. Currently, we probably do not need large volumes as we have enough drugs for revaccination by the end of the year. So, the deliveries for next year are planned," the health minister went on to say.

The health minister recalled that the Karaganda Pharmaceutical Complex manufactured an experimental batch of Sputnik Light. "We have already produced a pilot batch there, now we are hammering out this issue. A test batch has been manufactured to try out the technology and then examine it with the developer," Tsoi pointed out. He also noted that the tests of the first batch of Sputnik Light on the basis of the pharmaceutical complex were successful.

Vaccination process

On February 1, Kazakhstan launched mass vaccination with the Russian Sputnik V COVID-19 jab. At the end of February, the country started to deliver this vaccine, produced on the basis of the Karaganda Pharmaceutical Complex, to the regions. On April 26, the republic began to immunize citizens with the national QazVac drug. The Samruk-Kazyna Sovereign Wealth Fund purchased 1 mln doses of the Hayat-Vax vaccine from the Chinese company Sinopharm in late April.

In early June, the country received some 500,000 doses of the Chinese CoronaVac jab. On July 15, the Russian Direct Investment Fund announced that Kazakhstan’s health ministry authorized Sputnik Light. On November 10, the republic received the first batch of the Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine developed by the US company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, which is used for young people aged over 12 and pregnant women.

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