Monday, the Russian Direct Investment Fund announced that the Palestinian Ministry of Health has registered the Russian COVID-19 vaccine ‘Sputnik V’ for emergency use, with the vaccines scheduled to be delivered to Palestine in the first quarter of 2021.

Registration was carried out under the emergency license (EUA) without conducting additional clinical trials in Palestine, after similar procedures were previously registered in Argentina, Bolivia, Serbia and Algeria.

Dmitriev confirmed that more than 1.5 million people have already been vaccinated using the vaccine. The price of Sputnik V does not exceed USD 10 per injection.

Vaccine doses can be stored at a temperature between two to eight degrees Celsius, which allows it to be stored in a conventional refrigerator without the need to invest in additional freezers. This is highly advantageous for Palestine, seeing as they only have one super-low temperature freezer for vaccines which require it. 

The CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev, said, "The high quality and effectiveness of the Sputnik V vaccine is attracting increasing interest from a growing number of countries, indicating that this will expand the geography of its registration, supply and production."

Sputnik V has been approved in Russia, Belarus, Serbia, Argentina, Bolivia and Algeria, and the European Union vaccine registration process has begun.

He explained that the registration of the vaccine came as a result of its main advantages, which are its "effectiveness of more than 90 percent, and the vaccine provides complete protection against severe cases of coronavirus infections."

He pointed out that Sputnik V uses two different types of vectors for two doses during the vaccination process, which creates stronger immunity compared to vaccines that use the same delivery mechanism for both doses.

He said that the safety, efficacy and reduction of long-term negative effects of adenovirus vaccines have been demonstrated in more than 250 clinical studies over two decades.

Experiments have shown that the Sputnik V vaccine does not cause severe allergic reactions.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health was not immediately available for comment.