NUR-SULTAN – Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Yeraly Tugzhanov took part on April 22 in dispatching the first batch of Kazakh vaccine QazVac (QazCovid-in) against the COVID-19 in Almaty, reports the press office of the Prime Minister. The vaccine was developed by the Almaty-based Kazakh Biosafety Research Institute.
On April 23, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev commented on the QazVac progress in his Twitter account. “The delivery of the QazVac vaccine to the regions of the country has started. We will increase domestic vaccine production for it to be available to all citizens. Kazakhstan is one of the few countries in the world able to develop its own vaccine. Thank you to all the scientists and specialists who developed the vaccine!,” he wrote.
Tugzhanov noted that all the orders of the President on the issue of the Kazakh vaccine, which were first given last October, are in the process of implementation.
The first 50,000 doses of the vaccine will be distributed to the SK-Pharmacy hubs and delivered to the regional health management warehouses across the country. Vaccination of the population with the QazVac vaccine is set to begin on April 26. Another 50,000 doses are planned to be produced in May. Later, the production of the vaccine will gradually increase to 500,000-600,000 doses per month.
The vaccination against the coronavirus started Feb. 1 in Kazakhstan. The nation currently uses Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, which is manufactured at the Karaganda pharmaceutical plant.
As of today, the vaccination in the country has reached 823,498 people with the first-dose injection and 132,603 with the full vaccination, according to the Kazakh Ministry of Healthcare.
Almaty continues to lead the vaccinated population rating with 162,635 vaccinated with the first-dose. Almaty region (111,831), Nur-Sultan (78,174), Karaganda region (76,069) and Shymkent (73,815) follow next.
