Since then, more than two million Russians have been vaccinated with at least the first dose of Sputnik V, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said on February 10.

Roll-out of a second vaccine, developed by the Vector Institute in Novosibirsk, is beginning.

“Today, Russia is the only country to have already three vaccines against Covid-19,” Prime Minister Mishustin said.

02:24

Russian patients practise Chinese martial art to recover from Covid-19

Russian patients practise Chinese martial art to recover from Covid-19

The Chumakov Centre, founded in 1955 in St Petersburg by Mikhail Chumakov, is known for its work with US scientist Albert Sabin at the height of the Cold War, which led to the production of the widely-used polio vaccine.

Unlike the Sputnik V vaccine, which uses a modified harmless cold virus that tricks the body into producing antigens to help the immune system prepare for a coronavirus infection, the CoviVac vaccine is a “whole-virion” vaccine.

This means it is made of a coronavirus that has been inactivated, or stripped of its ability to replicate.

“The vaccine we have developed … reflects the whole history of Russian, as well as global, vaccine science,” the Chumakov Centre’s director, Aidar Ishmukhametov, said on Saturday.

The CoviVac shot is given in two doses, 14 days apart. It is transported and stored at normal fridge temperatures, of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius, Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova said in a government briefing in January.

Argentina’s health minister quits over preferential vaccine scandal

Argentina’s health minister Gines Gonzalez Garcia has resigned over a scandal that reportedly saw him arrange preferential Covid-19 vaccinations for his political allies.

“I am submitting my resignation as health minister on your express wishes,” Gonzalez Garcia wrote in a letter to President Alberto Fernandez which was published on Friday.

State Secretary Carla Vizzotti is to take over the ministry, the president’s office said.

The scandal was triggered by the pro-government journalist Horacio Verbitsky, who told a radio broadcast that after a phone call with Gonzalez Garcia he had been called to the Ministry of Health to be vaccinated.

Studies find Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine significantly reduces transmission

Due to his age, job and personal risk, it would not have been his turn yet. The elderly and those most at risk are generally first in line for the jab.

In total, the former minister is said to have reserved 3,000 vaccine doses for personal use.

Powerful union boss Hugo Moyano is among those to have reportedly received vaccine shots earlier than they were due. Moyano is said to have been vaccinated together with his wife and 20-year-old son.

The Russian Sputnik V vaccine is mainly in use in the South American country, and the first doses from AstraZeneca have recently arrived in the country.

So far, just 390,000 of the nearly 45 million Argentines have been inoculated.

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, around 2 million people have been shown to have been infected with the virus in Argentina. Some 51,000 patients have died in connection with Covid-19.

Chinese, Russian vaccines to arrive in Mexico

Mexico says it will get its first shipment of the Chinese Coronavac vaccine Saturday and by Monday will receive its first lot of the Russian Sputnik V shot. Both shipments are expected to consist of about 200,000 doses.

Health officials say the first shipments of the Chinese and Russian vaccines will be used in low-income neighbourhoods of Mexico City or its suburbs.

Mexico is currently using the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines and has applied almost 1.6 million doses of those.

The country will now be faced with the logistical challenge of handling four different vaccines, all of which require two doses. In addition, the Sputnik first shot is different from the second and is not interchangeable.

Winter storms hamper vaccine deliveries in US

Winter storms in the US have led to a nationwide backlog in the delivery of 6 million Covid-19 vaccine doses, setting the time-sensitive vaccination effort back days in communities across the country, the White House said on Friday.

“All 50 states have been impacted. The 6 million doses represent about three days of delayed shipping,” Andy Slavitt, White House senior adviser on Covid-19, said during a briefing. “As weather conditions improve, we are already working to clear this backlog.”

Slavitt said 1.4 million doses were in transit on Friday and backlogged doses would arrive next week, most in the next several days.

90-year-old US woman walks 9.7km through snow to get Covid-19 jab

The Arizona Department of Health Services reported that it had “no estimated time of arrival” for delayed Moderna doses. The Florida Department of Health also reported it did not have a timeline from the federal government on when to expect delayed Moderna doses.

Vaccination hubs run by corporate partners have scrambled to ship out vaccines due to the snow and ice.

FedEx said it was moving vaccines to its second-largest hub at Indianapolis International Airport and other smaller hubs in Oakland, California, and Newark, New Jersey, to reroute shipments.

FedEx, UPS and McKesson all emphasised in emailed statements that they were working to ensure shipments were on time.

“We are in regular and frequent contact and tight partnership with federal agencies, vaccine manufacturers, and others in the supply chain. … Weather conditions only amplify our coordination,” UPS spokesman Matthew O’Connor said.

Slavitt said vaccinators planned to work over the weekend to catch up on missed doses.

Reporting by dpa, Reuters, AP