Moscow Mayor Sobyanin tells Putin he was vaccinated with new Russian Covid-19 vaccine
MOSCOW. Sept 4 (Interfax) - Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has told Russian President Vladimir Putin that he is taking part in the trials of Russia's Covid-19 vaccine.
During his meeting with Sobyanin, held by video link, Putin asked the mayor whether he has been inoculated against coronavirus.
"Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin], [otherwise] it would be difficult for me to champion the Russian vaccine, because even today, according to public opinion surveys, around one half of Russians, no more than half, or maybe even less than half, doubt whether it's necessary to be vaccinated at all, whether this vaccine is fully ready," Sobyanin said.
"In order to encourage my colleagues, and in order to be confident myself that a window of opportunity has opened in this situation in our country, that Russia does have a good domestic vaccine, I made the decision, colleagues from the institute allowed me to do this [to be vaccinated]. I'm already almost halfway through the entire large phase, so to speak," he said.
Sobyanin said that he is "feeling well, and, hopefully, this won't change."
Putin also asked Sobyanin whether he developed a fever after vaccination.
"No, Vladimir Vladimirovich, I can say that I felt almost no aftereffects. The only thing is that I had a slight headache and felt some heaviness for half a day, but it wasn't anything extraordinary; this is how we might feel sometimes when we're vaccinated against the flu," Sobyanin said.
Putin wished Sobyanin good health in the future.
Sobyanin also said that the vaccination has given him confidence that the Moscow authorities chose the right methods for fighting Covid-19.
On August 11, Putin announced that Russia had registered the world's first coronavirus vaccine. The vaccine developed by the Gamaleya Center will be produced by Binnopharm (part of AFK Sistema) in Moscow's Zelenograd. The Russian Direct Investment Fund is financing the development and production of the vaccine. The Health Ministry says the vaccine is safe.
Putin said later that one of his daughters has successfully been vaccinated with the Russian vaccine. The next day after having been inoculated, her body temperature rose to 38.4 degrees Celsius, and then it dropped to 37 degrees Celsius the following day, he said.