Director of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev said that the "current agreement" signed by the government of Serbia with the fund foresees supplying the country with two million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine.
"It is a vaccine that is given in two doses, which means that it will be enough to immunize one million people. The first batch was delivered just before the New Year," Dmitriev told Politika newspaper.
He stated that it is too early to say how long the vaccine will protect against the corona virus, but that based on experimental data, Sputnik V is expected to provide at least two years of immunity to covid-19.
As he stated, there are two types of Sputnik V vaccine - liquid and lyophilized, suitable for transport to remote, hard-to-reach places.
"Liquid, which should be stored at minus 18 degrees Celsius, and the so-called lyophilized, which is stored at a temperature of two to eight degrees Celsius. This is compared to a temperature of minus 70 degrees Celsius, where some other vaccines should be stored," said Dmitriyev .
According to him, the lyophilized form was developed specifically for transporting the vaccine to remote, hard-to-reach places with limited access to modern medical infrastructure.
As he said, since the mass vaccination program began in Russia in December, more than a million people have already been vaccinated, and that number should increase significantly in the coming weeks and months.
Bonus video:
