MINSK, 18 April (BelTA) – Belarus has launched the production of the Sputnik Light vector vaccine to prevent COVID-19, Healthcare Minister Dmitry Pinevich told Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, BelTA has learned.
According to the minister, Belarus and Russia completed a technology transfer and now the whole production process of Sputnik Light is done by the domestic enterprise Belmedpreparaty. Thus the Belarus-Russia project to produce the Sputnik Light vaccine against the coronavirus infection advanced to a new stage. Earlier in April, the first validation batch of the vaccine was sent for quality control to the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.
In addition to that, work is in progress to develop Belarus’ own vaccine against coronavirus at a Vitebsk-based enterprise. The work proceeds in line with a schedule, Dmitry Pinevich said.
Speaking about the epidemiological situation in Belarus, the minister described it as almost safe. There are only sporadic cases of disease, and the healthcare system has returned to its routine operation by and large. Tertiary medical care is provided in full, routine operations are performed across all specializations.