Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said there’s a need to quickly achieve mutual recognition of coronavirus vaccines and their availability worldwide.
"I’m saying there’s a need for mutual recognition of vaccines and making them available worldwide as soon as possible and as much as possible," he said during his annual news conference. "Otherwise, we won’t cope with this problem globally."
Putin said he hopes Russia will reach the planned level of herd immunity to COVID-19, 80%, in the first half of next year.
"We need herd immunity of about 80%," he said during his annual news conference. "I hope next year, maybe at the end of the first quarter or during the second quarter, we will reach that level."
Putin added that currently herd immunity stands at 59.4%, which is too low. Some countries now say herd immunity needs to be 90%-95%, the head of state said.
Russia has registered five vaccines against coronavirus, which are Sputnik V, EpiVacCorona, Sutnik Light, CoviVac, and EpiVacCorona-N.
