Coronavirus: Russia approves new vaccine, Argentina health minister quits over jabs scandal

Russia has already approved two Covid-19 vaccines, including the Sputnik V shot, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute

Meanwhile, Mexico is expecting shipments of Chinese and Russian shots, while Argentina’s health minister has quit over allegations his allies received preferential vaccine treatment

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A nurse receives a Covid-19 vaccine dose in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. Photo: ZUMA Wire/dpa

Published: 4:02pm, 20 Feb 2021Updated: 11:14pm, 20 Feb 2021

Russia on Saturday approved a third coronavirus vaccine for domestic use, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on state TV, though large-scale clinical trials of the shot, labelled CoviVac and produced by the Chumakov Centre, have yet to begin.

Russia has already approved two Covid-19 vaccines, including the Sputnik V shot, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute, following a similar approach of granting approval before seeing any late-stage trial results.

The pre-emptive approvals had raised concerns among some scientists in the West, but inoculations with those first two shots began on a mass scale in Russia only after trials were concluded and showed success.

Sputnik V was approved in August and late-stage trials began in September. Mass vaccination was launched in December, after preliminary trial results showed the vaccine to be 91.4% effective.

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.