No post-vaccination deaths registered in Russia so far — Gamaleya Center

MOSCOW. KAZINFORM So far, no deaths caused by acute reaction to anti-coronavirus vaccines have been registered in Russia, the head of the laboratory of mechanisms of population variability of pathogenic microorganisms at the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Vladimir Gushchin, told Russia’s Channel One.

«At the moment, given that more than one hundred million people were vaccinated, we know that cases of adverse effects are sporadic, and amount to approximately one case to one million vaccinations. So far, no one has died in Russia as a result of an acute reaction to the jab,» he said, TASS reports.

Gushchin added that Russian scientists have technological capacities of adjusting the vaccine to new strains of the novel coronavirus, but there is no such need at the moment.

«The old vaccine is so effective that it makes absolutely no sense to change it,» he said.

«We have data from a cohort study, showing that Sputnik V’s protection against clinically apparent COVID-19 is 83%, protection against hospitalization - 90% and protection against death - 95%. This applies to the new delta strain and derived variants, which have been circulating in Moscow since June,» the Russian scientist added.

According to the latest statistics, around 244.2 million people have been infected with the novel coronavirus worldwide and more than 4.9 million deaths have been reported.

To date, 8,316,019 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 7,213,584 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 232,775 fatalities nationwide. The Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.