ALGIERS – Algeria will begin rolling out the contentious Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine developed by Russia next month, the government said yesterday.
The country has signed a “mutual agreement with a Russian laboratory for the acquisition of the coronavirus vaccine from January”, said Communications Minister Ammar Belhimer.
Authorities will receive an initial shipment of 500,000 doses, Finance Ministry director-general Abdelaziz Fayed told local broadcaster Echorouk.
The announcement comes a day after the elderly president of the North African nation, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, returned home following a two-month absence in Germany, where he was treated for Covid-19.
Moscow announced the registration of Sputnik V in August after it completed just the second phase of trials on fewer than 100 volunteers.
It raised concerns from scientists at home and abroad, who said the decision was premature without wider clinical trials and the publication of scientific results.
Russia began its own vaccination campaign on December 5, beginning with at-risk workers.
Some analysts have viewed the fast-track registration and early launch of mass vaccination as a bid by Russia to bolster geopolitical influence.
Algeria has recorded nearly 100,000 infections and more than 2,750 deaths from the disease, according to the Health Ministry. – AFP, December 31, 2020
