MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia is working on a program to offer people abroad the chance to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in Russia with the July Sputnik V vaccine, the vaccine’s official Twitter account said.
Officials have so far been skeptical about launching a program to allow foreigners to travel to Russia for the vaccine, saying it needs to focus on its own population.
The dual vaccine is available in Russia for its own citizens or for foreigners who have a residence permit or temporary residence permit.
“Sputnik V vaccination in Russia! Who’s on board? The official English account of the photo wrote on Twitter on Thursday, posting a photo of people next to an airplane with Sputnik written on it.
He invited Twitter users to follow his account, saying, “Our social media followers will be the first to be invited to get #SputnikVaccinated in Russia when the program starts.”
“We are working to start this program in July,” he said.
Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund, which is marketing Sputnik V globally and managing the Twitter account, declined to elaborate.
An RDIF representative said the fund would provide more details when such a program was launched.
“Call me Laika and put me on board this Sputnik!” one person responded to the tweets, referring to the first Russian dog in space. Some expressed doubts about the idea because of the pace of the vaccination program in Russia.
Russia had produced 20.1 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine on March 17, while 4.3 million people out of a population of 144 million have received both vaccines since December.
Health Minister Mikhail Murashko previously dismissed the idea of foreigners traveling to Russia to get the vaccine while the country inoculates its own population.
“The priority for us is the vaccination of Russian citizens … We are not working on the topic of vaccination tourism at this stage,” said Alexei Kuznetsov, Murashko’s aide.
Polina Nikolskaya reporting; edition by Tom Balmforth and Barbara Lewis