COVID-19 Vaccine: Sputnik V likely to be available at Delhi’s Indraprastha hospital from June 15

New Delhi, June 13: Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V is expected to be available at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in Delhi on Monday, a day ahead of the tentative roll-out scheduled for 15 June. The Centre has fixed the price of the vaccine at Rs 1,145 per dose.

The first phase of the Sputnik V roll-out by Apollo Hospitals and Dr Reddy's Laboratories had started on a pilot basis on 17 May in Hyderabad and on 18 May in Vishakhapatnam.

"Apollo Hospitals are going to roll out the vaccine for the general public in Delhi by the end of the week," an official told PTI. An official of Madhukar Rainbow Children''s Hospital also said it will start administering Sputnik V jabs within this week.

A third vaccine, Russian-made Sputnik V, has been approved by the government and is being used on a smaller scale at present.

The Sputnik V is manufactured by the Gamalaya Institute, Moscow. This is also a vector vaccine based on an adenovirus. Two slightly different versions of the vaccine are administered 21 days apart.

Sputnik V efficacy

Reportedly, Sputnik V has a 91.6 per cent efficacy against coronavirus, which is among the top performing vaccines, along with the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna jabs that also reported more than 90% efficacy.

This is significant as both Covishield and Covaxin showed an efficacy of around 81 per cent in the trials.

"Sputnik V is one of the three vaccines in the world with efficacy of over 90%. The vaccine's efficacy is confirmed at 91.6% based on the analysis of data on 19,866 volunteers, who received both the first and second doses of the Sputnik V vaccine or placebo at the final control point of 78 confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to the information available on the vaccine's official website.

Sputnik V side-effects

There are no concerns that the Sputnik V vaccine could potentially cause harm to a person's health. The researchers have reported rare serious adverse events. The number of cases requiring hospital admission were also negligible.

So far, four deaths were reported in the trial, none of which were said to be related to the vaccine. Mild, including flu-like symptoms, pain at injection site and weakness or low energy, were most reported adverse effects.

Sputnik V has a number of key advantages, including that there are no strong allergies caused by Sputnik V.

After Covishield and Covaxin, Sputnik V is the third vaccine to be approved by the government for use in India.

The maximum price of Covishield for private COVID-19 Vaccination Centres (CVCs) has been fixed at Rs 780 per dose, while that of Covaxin is Rs 1,410 per dose.

Dr Reddy''s Laboratories, the marketing partner for the vaccine in the country, has been importing the shots from Russia.

Over a period of time, the vaccine is also going to be manufactured in India.