Russian health ministry greenlights joint Covid-19, flu vaccination

MOSCOW: The Russian Health Ministry has amended the instructions for the use of the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine, giving green light to administering it simultaneously with a flu shot, according to the ministry statement.

"Russia's Health Ministry has authorised simultaneous vaccination against Covid and influenza, as corresponding changes have been made to the instructions for the medical use of the Gam-Covid-Vac (Sputnik V) vaccine," the statement said on Friday.

Studies have proven that when Covid-19 and flu vaccines are inoculated at the same time, their effectiveness is not reduced, the Russian Health Ministry told.

"The combination of Sputnik V with the influenza vaccine has been studied in preclinical trials, showing no decrease in immunogenicity of both vaccines when they are administered simultaneously. When Covid and flu vaccines are administered simultaneously, the shots are injected to different parts of the body, for example, the left and right shoulders," the press service said in a statement.

On Friday, Russia registered a new single-day record of 37,141 Covid-19 cases, up from the previous record of 36,339 cases confirmed the day before, bringing the cumulative total to 8,168,305, as per the federal response center.

"Over the past day, 37,141 Covid-19 cases were confirmed across 85 Russian regions, including 3,397 cases (9.1 per cent) without clinical symptoms," the center said, adding that the rate of increase grew to 0.46 per cent.

Moscow has the highest number of new cases with 8,166 infections, up from 7,897 the day before. The Russian capital is followed by St Petersburg with 3,233 cases, down from 3,280, and the Moscow region with 2,428 cases, up from 2,318.

The response center reported a new record of 1,064 deaths linked to the coronavirus, up from 1,036 the day before, bringing the country's death toll to 228,453. In the same 24 hours, 25,453 Covid-19 patients were discharged from hospitals across the country, down from 25,895 the day before, bringing the total to 7,117,060.