OREANDA-NEWS. The head of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Murashko, said that work with WHO on the recognition of the Russian vaccine against COVID-19 is moving in a positive direction.

“The process is underway, work with WHO is moving in a positive direction,” he told reporters, answering a relevant question.

The dates of the WHO visit are agreed by manufacturers and experts, the minister added.

Sputnik V is approved in 70 countries with a total population of 4 billion people, which is more than 50% of the world's population. Sputnik V ranks second in the world in terms of the number of approvals received by government regulators. The vaccine efficacy was 97.6% based on the analysis of data on 3.8 million vaccinated Russians, which is higher than the data previously published by the medical journal The Lancet (91.6%), the RDIF and the Gamaleya Research Center reported earlier.

In June, the WHO expert group, following the results of inspections carried out in Russia, made a number of comments on the production of the Sputnik V vaccine at the Pharmstandard-UfaVITA enterprise, mainly related to environmental protection and emission monitoring. The experts had no complaints about other enterprises.

In mid-September, the deputy head of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, told reporters that the approval of Sputnik V at WHO was suspended until a new inspection of the manufacturer's plant.

In early October, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko, following a meeting with US representatives in Geneva, said that all barriers to the recognition of the Sputnik V vaccine in WHO had been removed, and some administrative procedures remained.