The President of the Republic, Nicolás Maduro, received this Saturday the first dose of the Russian Sputnik-V vaccine against COVID-19 from the Miraflores Palace, located in Caracas, after health personnel and other prioritized sectors were vaccinated.
“We have already vaccinated the medical personnel and, as I told the people, I am complying with them. Let’s get vaccinated!” Said the Head of State.
The President reaffirmed his confidence with the Russian antiviral, whose effectiveness exceeds 90% according to a study published in the British medical journal The Lancet.
In addition, Nicolás Maduro stated that he had full confidence in the vaccines also developed by countries such as China and Cuba.
In this context, he reiterated that as a result of the illegal blockade that the United States government maintains on Venezuela, the acquisition of a greater quantity of anti-COVID-19 doses has been made difficult.
The immunization process was straightforward. Maduro offered his personal information to complete the vaccination card, then he entered the room where the injection would be given and waited for the statutory 15 minutes to verify that there were no side effects.
On the day, the first combatant of the Republic, Cilia Flores, was also immunized.
In 21 days, the Dignitary will complete the immunization with the second dose of the antigen developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, located in Moscow.
The vaccination process that began on February 18, is aimed at the personnel of the first line of attention against COVID-19. Thus, the surgeon Glendys Rivero became the first Venezuelan to receive the Russian vaccine.
Last December, Venezuela and Russia agreed to purchase 10 million doses of the Sputnik-V vaccine.