11 African countries that have approved Russia's Sputnik V vaccine

Eleven African countries have so far approved the use of Russia's Sputnik V covid-19 vaccines the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund) announced yesterday.

Southern African nation of Namibia became the 50th country in the world but 11th in Africa.

"The Ministry of Health and Social Services of Namibia has registered Sputnik V under the emergency use authorization procedure," the RDIF statement read in part.

African countries that have so far signed up for Sputnik V are: Namibia, Algeria, Guinea, Tunisia, Ghana, Kenya, Gabon, Egypt, Republic of Congo, Djibouti and Morocco.

"Total population of 50 countries where the Russian vaccine is approved for use exceeds 1.3 billion people. Sputnik ranks second among coronavirus vaccines globally in terms of the number of approvals issued by government regulators," the statement added.

Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, said: “A new major milestone reached today for Sputnik V with 50 countries having approved the Russian vaccine, which is already saving lives and preventing the spread of coronavirus.

"RDIF is joining efforts with partners in every part of the world and offers one of the best vaccines in terms of efficacy, safety and affordability. We see strong demand and do our best to meet it so that more countries could protect their population with Sputnik V.”

Sputnik V has a number of key advantages:

Efficacy of Sputnik V is 91.6% as confirmed by the data published in the Lancet, one of the world's oldest and most respected medical journals; it is one of only three vaccines in the world with efficacy of over 90%; Sputnik V provides full protection against severe cases of COVID-19.

The Sputnik V vaccine is based on a proven and well-studied platform of human adenoviral vectors, which cause the common cold and have been around for thousands of years.

Sputnik V uses two different vectors for the two shots in a course of vaccination, providing immunity with a longer duration than vaccines using the same delivery mechanism for both shots.

The safety, efficacy and lack of negative long-term effects of adenoviral vaccines have been proven by more than 250 clinical studies over two decades.

The developers of the Sputnik V vaccine are working collaboratively with AstraZeneca on a joint clinical trial to improve the efficacy of AstraZeneca vaccine.

There are no strong allergies caused by Sputnik V.

The storage temperature of Sputnik V at +2+8 C means it can be stored in a conventional refrigerator without any need to invest in additional cold-chain infrastructure.