Algeria seeks to make Russia’s Covid vaccine
Algeria has begun discussions to have Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine made in the country, the prime minister’s office has said.
“The two parties agreed to start contacts between the relevant bodies with a view to build cooperation in the field of making the Spoutnik V vaccine in Algeria,” said a statement from Prime Minister Abdelaziz Djerad after he met Russian ambassador to Algiers Igor Baliaev.
The government did not give a manufacturing timeline, nor did it specify the quantities of doses to be produced.
Algeria received its first 500,000 doses of Sputnik V on Friday last week and started a vaccination campaign on Saturday in the province of Blida.
The authorities are expecting a second shipment of China’s Sinopharm vaccine “in the coming days”, according to the Communication Minister Ammar Belhimer.
An AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine shipment that was ordered by the government would be delivered next month, according to the minister.
The Algerian government had announced a budget of €122m ($147m;£107m) to secure vaccines and to immunise the population of 40 million.
Meanwhile, President Abdelamdjid Tebboune is being treated in Germany for a Covid-19 complication.
