'Pace of vaccination in Tatarstan is such that we can predict interruptions in vaccine delivery'

18,000 people are already being vaccinated in Tatarstan a day

Whether the numerous appeals of the Tatarstan Ministry of Healthcare and Rospotrebnadzor finally worked out, or whether the measures for mandatory vaccination of certain categories played a role — Tatarstan has reached record rates of vaccination.

If at the beginning of May the president of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, set a goal to reach 10,000 vaccinated people a day, then 18,000 Tatarstan citizens have already been vaccinated over the past day.

The day before, the head of the press service of the president of Tatarstan, Lilia Galimova, reported: in Tatarstan, the demand for coronavirus vaccines exceeds supplies, in some vaccination points, there was a stir in this regard. Therefore, the republic has requested additional supplies of the vaccine.

It turned out that in the current conditions the Ministry of Healthcare of Tatarstan does not exclude a vaccine shortage. Vladimir Zhavoronkov, the deputy minister of healthcare of the republic — head of the healthcare department of Kazan, asked Tatarstan residents to treat this with understanding.

“There are certain difficulties with vaccination in terms of the availability of the vaccine. We continue to vaccinate, of course, shipments are coming, the latest batch of Sputnik V was on 7 July. We are being in a very interesting situation, expected one: the pace of vaccination is such that we can afford to predict interruptions with the vaccine. We really ask the population to treat this with understanding. Dear friends, believe me that the healthcare system is doing everything to minimise delays in the delivery of the vaccine. Literally within a few hours after receiving the vaccine, it is already being delivered to polyclinics, the process does not stop for a second. We have nothing left in our warehouses," Zhavoronkov said.

At the same time, Zhavoronkov complained that many of those who receive the first component of the vaccine, for some reason, do not come to the second vaccination. He reminded that immunity is formed after the second vaccination, and not immediately, but after 15-20 days.

“Those rumours that are exaggerated in the media that 'I was vaccinated and immediately got sick' — you start checking and see that in the vast majority of cases it is either after the first stage of vaccination, or immediately after the second stage of vaccination, when they did not wait for the formation of immunity in the terms stated by the manufacturer of the vaccine.”

If a person gets sick after the first component, you need to consult with your doctor about when and how best to continue vaccination, Zhavoronkov added.

Only Sputnik V

If you go to get vaccinated today — you will have the opportunity to get vaccinated with almost 100% probability only with Sputnik V, it follows from the words of Zhavoronkov. In total, we recall that there are officially four vaccines in Russia — Sputnik V, EpiVacCorona, CoviVac, and Sputnik Light, the latter is intended mainly for revaccination. Sputnik V is now in abundance in Tatarstan, most of the population is vaccinated with it. Sputnik Light, on the contrary, has not yet been delivered to the regions.

CoviVac comes in very limited batches, as soon as it is delivered, it is immediately go to those who are in “the waiting lists”, Zhavoronkov said.

“If you really want to get vaccinated with CoviVac — please see how important it is for you and is this a reason to delay vaccination? Sputnik V is a very worthy vaccine," Zhavoronkov said.

Those who really want to get vaccinated with CoviVac, Zhavoronkov asked to call clinics to get on the “waiting lists”. If suddenly a polyclinic refuses to do this — you need to inform the republican ministry of healthcare.

The delivery of EpiVacCorona is expected in the coming days, Zhavoronkov added, the volume of the batch was not named.

Kazan residents found it more comfortable to be vaccinated in shopping centres

If at the start of the vaccination campaign, the ministry of healthcare spoke about the not very high popularity of points in the shopping centres, now photos of queues for vaccination in Kazan shopping centres are popping up every day in social networks. The very model of behaviour of those who go to get vaccinated in shopping centres has changed, says Zhavoronkov.

“This is no longer an impulsive moment when 'I was walking in a shopping centre and decided to get vaccinated', as it was at the very beginning (that's why we opened vaccination points in shopping centres). Part of the population consciously goes to vaccination in shopping centres. We see this trend, we are trying to match it. [...] This is in order to bring the population closer to vaccination in medical institutions, if for one reason or another they do not really want to go to medical institutions.”

In light of this, a new vaccination point has been even opened in the capital of Tatarstan, although not quite in the shopping centre — in the Leroy Merlin building. In the near future, several more similar vaccination points are going to open. Mobile teams at the metro continue to work, but because of the heat, they are now only at four stations.

How “binding” measures are working now

This week it has become clear: a number of enterprises in Tatarstan received instructions from Rospotrebnadzor on vaccination of employees. There are already 47 such enterprises in total, deputy head of the Tatarstan department Lyubov Avdonina said. She called such prescriptions “a targeted measure”, which was also used in pre-crisis times when foci of an infectious disease were detected — for example, when a focus of measles was detected in organised collectives, the rest of the members of this collective had to be vaccinated. Thus, the resolution means that the organisation already has or has had a hotbed of Covid-19.

In such cases, the close environment of the sick person is removed for isolation, and all other employees of the enterprise (namely, all, and not some part) — older than 18 years, not pregnant, not nursing mothers and without contraindications — must be vaccinated.

“The requirement to organise vaccination is clearly spelled out for the heads of the enterprise, as it will be done — the decision of the management. Either a mobile team is invited, or off-work days are made when you can go and get vaccinated. But he (the head — editor's note) is responsible for the execution of this resolution.”

If employees are not vaccinated, the law provides for administrative liability under part 2 of Article 6.3 of the Administrative Code (for legal entities — a fine of up to 500,000 rubles or suspension of activity for up to 90 days).

Besides, the Tatarstan operational centre has introduced another restrictive measure — Rospotrebnadzor stopped accepting applications from public catering for the right to work at night, provided that the staff is fully vaccinated. While this ban is defined for two weeks, after the operational centre will make a decision: to keep it in force or cancel it.

Those catering enterprises that have already received permission to work after midnight — these are 23 enterprises, 15 of them in Kazan, must accept new employees only if they have a certificate of vaccination. The notifications that were received after the ban will be considered primarily after the restriction is lifted, Avdonina said.

Also, the operational centre now coordinates all the planned events in the republic in a week. According to Avdonina, only one applicant has been refused approval so far — it remains unknown to whom exactly.