The inhabitants of the PACA region could be the first French to be vaccinated against Covid-19 with the Russian vaccine Sputnik V. And for good reason, the president of the PACA region, Renaud Muselier announced, this Wednesday, April 14, 2021, that ‘he had pre-ordered 500,000 doses subject to European authorization.
500,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine pre-ordered in the PACA region
With an incidence rate of 393 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, the PACA region is currently the third region in France most affected by the Covid-19 epidemic. It is in this context that Renaud Muselier, the president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur region, announced on Wednesday April 14, 2021 that he had placed a pre-order of 500,000 doses of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V “under reservation of European »authorization. In an interview given to RTL radio, he said: “ I saw the Russian ambassador. I saw the German Land of Bavaria which is the most powerful in Germany, and I pre-ordered 500,000 doses of Sputnik “.
While 339,000 people have already been vaccinated in the PACA region, Renaud Muselier has expressed his desire to speed up the vaccination campaign: “ my goal is to reopen my bars, my restaurants, my festivals this summer, as soon as possible, and for that, it is necessary to vaccinate, with vaccines which are approved, validated on the health plan, and I wait the validation “.
A vaccine awaiting European authorization
Already used in around 40 countries such as Argentina, Mexico, Morocco, Kenya, Hungary and Slovakia, the Russian vaccine Spountik V has not yet received the green light from European health authorities. The approval of the European Medicines Agency is expected in June or July. If he obtains this green light, Renaud Musselier plans to make these doses available to the Regional Health Agency in order to distribute them in the various vaccinodromes in the region.
For the time being, the body has been studying the clinical data of the vaccine since March 4 to determine its effectiveness. According to the first conclusions of a study published in the scientific journal The Lancet, the Sputnik V vaccine would have an efficacy of 91.6%. In addition, the study found that 94% of the reported side effects were very mild.
