Vaccination campaign kicks off in Kazakhstan

NUR-SULTAN, February 1 (KAZINFORM) – A voluntary coronavirus campaign kicks off in Kazakhstan today, Kazinform reports. Vice Minister of Healthcare – chief state sanitary officer of the Republic of Kazakhstan Yerlan Kiyasov and Vice Minister of Healthcare Azhar Giniyat are the first to be inoculated. The first batch of Sputnik V vaccine has already been supplied to Kazakhstan and will be distributed among all regions. It is expected that up to 6 million Kazakhstanis will be vaccinated by the yearend. The vaccination campaign will be carried out in stage. At-risk groups, including doctors of infectious hospitals, emergency medical services, intensive care units, and so on, will be inoculated at the first stage of the vaccination campaign. At the second stage, schools teachers and university lecturers will get vaccinated. The third stage of vaccination will cover people with chronic diseases and other categories. Starting from February 1, 2021 people will be inoculated with Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. Starting from February 15, 2021 people will also be vaccinated with Sputnik V produced at the Karaganda Pharmaceutical Complex. Later on, starting from the second quarter of 2021, Kazakhstan is planning to introduce homegrown QazCovid-In vaccine to the vaccination campaign. Currently, the homegrown vaccine is in the third stage of clinical trials.