Three medics in Russia got infected with the coronavirus or COVID-19 after getting injected with Vladimir Putin's vaccine 'Sputnik V', as per reports. The vaccine was hailed as a 'world-beating' cure by the Russian President when he registered it in Agust but faced criticism from around the world due to worries about it getting rolled out too soon.
The makers of the vaccine have stressed that protection from the deadly disease only comes almost six weeks after the first of the two injections, as per the Russian health officials. The case in the Altai region in Siberia had three medics who tested negative before they got the first jabs of the vaccine. Three out of the 42 vaccinated frontline medical staff in the Altai region got infected with the disease after getting the doses, admitted the chief infection doctor of the region, Irina Pereladova.
COVID-19 Vaccine in Russia
The vaccine involves two jabs 21 days apart. The second shot of the vaccine was due to be given on October 14 but it is still not clear at what time the trio got identified as infected with the disease. By this week all recovered, she mentioned. Pereladova told a local news website that all of the three medics were likely infected in the 24 hours between having the negative tests and the first jab.
But the regional branch of the health ministry admitted that they might have got the virus despite having one or even two of the jabs. "Three out of 42 doctors, who were the first to be vaccinated against coronavirus infection, contracted the coronavirus. The vaccine developers have provided clarifications on this fact. A person is considered vaccinated and, accordingly, protected from coronavirus infection only three weeks after the second vaccination," the ministry admitted as reported by the Mirror.
It takes around six weeks to form 'immunity'. Pereladova, who is an epidemiologist said, "No single vaccine guarantees that a person will not get infected, as they might be in the incubation period." Russia is slowly vaccinating the health workers and others who are frontline workers including teachers.
Sputnik V is made by the Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology. Pereladova was the first in the region to get vaccinated with Sputnik V but she did not identify the medics who got infected. The testing of the medics ahead of the vaccination was not required, she said. "This was our own decision to run the tests on our Altai doctors prior to vaccination. This was in fact a pure experiment," she stated. The health minister also claimed this week that the Sputnik V gives protection to over 90 percent of the people who get vaccinated.
