OREANDA-NEWS. The Belarusian Ministry of Health has issued a permit for the import and use of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine, CoviVac, in the country. This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Health of Belarus.

"The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus has issued a permit for the import and use of CoviVac, a vaccine against COVID-19,"- it said.

According to the Belarusian Ministry of Health, the vaccine "CoviVac" arrived at the pharmacy warehouse on December 6 and more than 300 thousand doses have already been sent to all regions of Belarus on December 13-15.

In Moscow, registration for vaccination with "CoviVac" is suspended. The website of Moscow City Health Department reports that the vaccine has run out. The next batch is expected to be delivered.

After CoviVac entered the Russian market, vaccination appointments were suspended several times in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other major cities because of the large number of people wishing to be vaccinated with the drug. For example, in July, after CoviVac was delivered, the vaccine ran out in one day in the capital city. The vaccine was supplied to 14 Zdorovaya Moskva pavilions in an amount of no more than 850 doses per pavilion. Muscovites stood in queues for several hours to get vaccinated.

CoviVac is based on inactivated (or "killed") whole SARS-CoV-2 virus. The vaccine was developed at the Chumakov Centre in Russia. M.P. Chumakov. When reacting to CoviVac, antibodies are produced in relatively small amounts, but their levels increase dramatically when encountering the real virus, said Konstantin Chernov, director of development at the Chumakov Centre.

According to the operative staff, 67,260,355 people in Russia have been fully vaccinated. Collective immunity has been formed in 55.7% of citizens. This means that this percentage of the Russian population is immune to the coronavirus after suffering COVID-19 or because of vaccination.