Muntinlupa Mayor Jaime Fresnedi welcomed the announcement that the city will be one of the first to receive Russia’s Sputnik V Gam-COVID-Vac vaccine for coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The initial batch of 15,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccine was delivered to the country on May 1 and according to the Department of Health (DOH), Muntinlupa, Taguig, Manila, Makati and Parañaque will each receive 3,000 doses.
“We are thankful for the donation of Sputnik V. This will be an addition to our ongoing vaccination program as we are on our second dose for A1, A2, and A3 priority groups. We will continue to vaccinate to reach 70 percent herd immunity in Muntinlupa,” said Fresnedi.
The Asian Hospital and Medical Center, and the city-run Ospital ng Muntinlupa will vaccinate using Sputnik V as the former has the facility to store the vaccine, which should be kept at a temperature of -18 Celsius.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for Sputnik V last March 19. Dosage for Sputnik V is 0.5 ml administered through intramuscular injection. It is intended for those 18 years old and above.
According to the Sputnik V website, 64 countries have approved the use of the vaccine. These are the Philippines, Albania, Russia, Belarus, Argentina, Bolivia, Serbia, Algeria, Palestine, Venezuela, Paraguay, Turkmenistan, Hungary, UAE, Iran, Republic of Guinea, Tunisia, Armenia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Republika Srpska (entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina), Lebanon, Myanmar, Pakistan, Mongolia, Bahrain, Montenegro, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Gabon, San-Marino, Ghana, Syria, Kyrgyzstan, Guyana, Egypt, Honduras, Guatemala, Moldova, Slovakia, Angola, Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Sri Lanka, Laos, Iraq, North Macedonia, Kenya, Morocco, Jordan, Namibia, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Seychelles, Mauritius, Vietnam, Antigua and Barbuda, Mali, Panama, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Turkey.
Regarding Brazil’s decision not to issue a EUA to Sputnik V, the Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, which developed the vaccine, said, “Recent inaccurate and misleading comments by Brazilian regulator Anvisa alleged detection of replicated adenovirus (RCA), a weakened viral particle that does not even cause a common cold, in Sputnik V.”
“Gamaleya Institute confirms that no RCA was detected in any of the batches of the Sputnik V vaccine. That information was sent to Anvisa on March 26th. Anvisa, even though it initially said that it detected RCA, admitted that it did not undertake any tests of the vaccine and was referring to a regulatory limit in Russia on potential RCA presence,” the institute said.
It added, “Gamaleya Institute clarified to Anvisa that the limit used for quality control of the Sputnik V vaccine is much stricter than the allowed regulatory limit in Russia and corresponds to the strictest standards of the world regulators. That strict limit has been confirmed by 64 of the world’s regulators that authorized Sputnik V and allows to ensure the quality of the vaccine as evidenced by its safety and efficacy track record. According to publicly available data from Mexico, Argentina, Hungary and other regulators, Sputnik V showed the best safety track record of any vaccine.”