"There is still a lot of work ahead": Moscow will open a registration for vaccination against coronavirus for new population groups

The vaccination against coronavirus in Moscow from January 13 will be available for new categories of the population, said the mayor of the capital, Sergei Sobyanin, on his blog.

Employees of such sectors of the economy as research and development, information technology, telecommunications and communications, as well as employees of the social services sector, carried out by private and non-profit organizations, will now be able to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

In addition, the vaccination enrollment will be open to workers in the field of real estate management and real estate operations, hospitality, travel agents and other organizations providing tourism services.

Along with this, the mayor said that the number of coronavirus vaccination points will increase significantly this week.

“On January 14, 30 additional vaccination stations will start working, their total number will increase from 70 to 100,” Sobyanin said.

The mayor also thanked the residents of the city for their active participation in vaccination.

He said that “several times more people” came to the vaccination stations on New Year's holidays than at the end of December.

“The doctors did a good job, including vaccinating the veterans' homes, protecting the most vulnerable category of Muscovites from the risk of disease,” Sobyanin said.

Recall that citizens employed in the field of health care, education, employees of the MFC, city social services and the spheres of culture, trade and services, workers in transport, energy, industry, and media workers can already be vaccinated in the capital.

Vaccinations are also available to residents of the capital who work in the housing and utilities sector and sports, in catering establishments and law enforcement agencies.

Volunteers and persons employed in non-profit and religious organizations, construction workers, college and university students over 18 years old, citizens over 60 years old can take root.

Registration for vaccinations is open to employees of the banking and financial sectors, authorities and budgetary institutions of the federal, regional and municipal levels.

Earlier, the Russian Direct Investment Fund said that more than 1.5 million people have already been vaccinated with the Russian drug "Sputnik V" against coronavirus.

As reported on January 5, the head of the Gamaleya Center, Alexander Gintsburg, as of this number, over 1 million Russians received the drug, and no new adverse reactions to the drug were detected.

At the same time, RDIF spoke about financing of clinical trials of the Sputnik Light vaccine - a one-component version of Sputnik V.

As the head of the RDIF, Kirill Dmitriev, explained, this drug can become an effective temporary solution for many countries that are at the peak of the incidence of coronavirus infection and "striving to save as many lives of their citizens as possible."

“At the same time, for the Russian market, the Sputnik V vaccine will continue to be the main vaccine preparation used for large-scale vaccination of the population,” Dmitriev emphasized.

Sputnik V has already been approved for use in Russia, Belarus, Serbia, Argentina and Bolivia.

Algeria was the first in Africa to register a Russian vaccine against COVID-19, and Palestine was the first in the Middle East.

Ten more countries are expected to approve the vaccine by the end of January.

It is noted that the registration of the drug in Palestine was carried out as part of an accelerated procedure without additional clinical trials on the territory of the state.

Since the beginning of the epidemic in Russia, 3,425,269 cases of COVID-19 have been identified, for all the time from complications that developed against the background of coronavirus and concomitant diseases, 62,273 people have died.

2,800,675 patients recovered.

The press service of Rospotrebnadzor reported that over the entire time, more than 93.9 million laboratory tests were carried out in the country to detect coronavirus.

More than 625 thousand people remain under medical supervision.

Commenting on the situation with the incidence of COVID-19 in Russia, the chief researcher at the Gamaleya Center, Viktor Zuev, expressed the opinion that the epidemic in the country could practically be defeated in the second half of 2021.

“I think that this will all end almost somewhere by the end of the summer,” the scientist said on the air of the Russia 24 TV channel.