UN Chief Hopes WHO Will Approve Russia’s COVID-19 Vaccine ASAP
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres hoped that the World Health Organization (WHO) will certify Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible.
"I know that there are contacts at the present moment between the Russian authorities and WHO, I hope that those contacts lead in the quickest possible way to the approval or recognition by the WHO," he said in an interview with TASS.
Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine can be used by UN missions and it can play a very important role in the fight against the pandemic, Guterres said.
"We believe that the Russian vaccine can play a very important role in that battle that I mentioned. We need to make sure that we have vaccines available and affordable to everybody everywhere," he noted.
"It can be used in many of the UN operations in some vulnerable areas of the world where we will need vaccines for our staff and population which we support in our peacekeeping operations in fragile countries. So we hope that the Russian vaccine will play an important role in that regard," Guterres added.
"The only condition the UN has in relation to vaccines is that we can only use vaccines that are approved by the WHO," he said. "I know that there are contacts at the present moment between the Russian authorities and WHO, I hope that those contacts lead in the quickest possible way to the approval or recognition by the WHO."
In September 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during his speech at the UN General Assembly that Russia is ready to supply its Sputnik V vaccine to the UN for free.