Percentage of Russians considered immune to Covid-19 down to 57.8% from 59.7% over past week - Deputy PM Golikova

MOSCOW. Feb 26 (Interfax) - More than 87.3 million shots of the first component of a coronavirus vaccine have been administered in Russia at present, and the percentage of people considered immune to Covid-19 is currently estimated at 57.8% nationwide, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said on Friday.

"As of February 25, vaccination with the first component has been carried out 87,307,060 times, and 83,383,452 people have been fully vaccinated. The level of immunity in the population is 57.8%," the coronavirus operative response headquarters quoted Golikova as saying on Friday.

A week ago, the share of people considered immune to Covid-19 was estimated at 59.7%.

Four Russian federal entities currently have the levels of people considered immune to coronavirus at over 80%, namely St. Petersburg (84.2%, a decline by 0.7 percentage points over the past week), the Murmansk region (81.8%, down by 1 pp), Karelia (81.2%, down by 2.6 pp), and Sevastopol (81.2%, down by 1.7 pp), and. There were six such regions three weeks ago.

The level of immunity in the population is declining as Russians who were vaccinated initially or who were sick with coronavirus more than half a year ago are losing immunity, Golikova said.

"It is precisely herd immunity that should help us return to normal lives without tight restrictions. It's important to care about your health in time. We still recommend getting a vaccine to protect yourselves against severe symptoms of the disease and possible complications," she said.