'No one debated in the USSR, there was a vaccination calendar. They came and did it together — that's a discipline!'
The head of the Ministry of Healthcare of Tatarstan is convinced that “there is no other way”: all those epidemics that have already been did not go away without vaccination.
On 4 December, the head of the Tatarstan Ministry of Healthcare, Marat Sadykov, said that our republic is fully provided with vaccines: there are more than 600,000 doses available. Most of this stock is Sputnik V. However, Sputnik Lite was also received, with the delivery of which there was a technical delay earlier. So far, a “good” decrease in morbidity has been recorded in Tatarstan, and therefore, the number of places in the Covid-19 hospitals has begun to decrease, but doctors are ready to increase the number of beds again if necessary. Read the details in the material of Realnoe Vremya.
600k doses of the vaccine available
Tatarstan has no shortage of vaccines, Tatarstan Healthcare Minister Marat Sadykov said at the meeting with journalists on 4 December. According to him, there are more than 600,000 doses of vaccine available in the republic.
“We are, in principle, fully provided," stated the head of the ministry of healthcare.
Most of this stock, 80%, is Sputnik V, CoviVac — only 8,000 doses. As the official explained, the reason is the reformatting of production: “Now CoviVac will also be produced in large quantities.” There is also EpiVacCorona, but a small amount: this vaccine remains the least in demand.
The minister also assured that the republic has already received Sputnik Lite, which is especially actively recommended for revaccination:
“There was some technical delay, but not on our part.
They were allowed to use Sputnik Lite. They receive a QR code the next day. This is also wrong
The relevant ministry is not entirely satisfied with the wide distribution of this particular vaccine.
“They allowed us to use Sputnik Lite. [Those who have been vaccinated], they receive a QR code the next day. This is also wrong," Sadykov expressed his attitude to the situation.
He reminded that initially the coveted QR code was received only after two injections after 21 days. But the rules are established in Moscow: “The register is not ours. The whole system is federal.”
It also turned out that the nasal vaccine in Tatarstan is expected approximately in 3-4 months. However, according to the head of the Tatarstan Ministry of Healthcare, “this is an additional local protection”. In other words, it will not replace vaccination.
On the issue of vaccination of adolescents, our Ministry of Healthcare is in no hurry: such project as a pilot is not currently being considered. The republic has already exhausted its limit on “pilots”: there were clinical trials of EpiVacCorona and not only.
Answering the question of the correspondent of Realnoe Vremya, how many tourists from our republic are currently resting in potentially dangerous countries where the new strain of the coronavirus Omicron has already been identified, Sadykov said that they do not have such information yet. But next Tuesday, there will be a videoconference with the federal centre, then, perhaps, the official statistics will be announced.
So far, fortunately, no one has identified the new strain in Tatarstan. Marat Nailevich reminded that all arrivals from such countries must undergo a two-week quarantine: people are sent to it immediately upon arrival.
“In the USSR, no one discussed, there was a vaccine calendar”
Sadykov said that the republic had begun to curtail the bed capacity: “We see that the incidence has fallen.”
However, doctors will carefully monitor how the situation will develop in the next two weeks.
"[If anything happens], we will turn back about a thousand beds," he did not rule out.
In total, the minister reminded that 7,000 beds were equipped for Covid-19 patients in medical institutions of the republic. Now almost 23 percent of the total number are free. Sadykov was cautiously optimistic: “This is a decline, and a good one, but not a plateau.”
What helped to drop the incidence? Realnoe Vremya asked the minister whether such a not quite popular measure as the introduction of QR codes on transport had its effect.
“For the healthcare system itself not to develop like a domino, a period [without excessive workload] is needed. When there is an outbreak and 10,000 patients get into hospitals at once, it is difficult to help everyone at once," he replied.
If you don't want to get vaccinated, then don't get. No one is going to administer it without informed consent. But other processes are developing
At the same time, Sadykov noted that although the introduction of certain restrictive measures is not new, for some reason, it is always perceived sharply negatively in our country.
“If you don't want to get vaccinated, then don't get. No one is going to administer it without informed consent. But other processes are developing. Even in the new sanitary rules it is not written that vaccination is mandatory: there is a mechanism prescribed there. No one debated in the USSR, there was a vaccination calendar. They came and did it together: discipline! It's a little different now," he said regretfully.
In his family, the minister noted, everyone was vaccinated: both his father, who is 81 years old, and his aunt, who is 76 years old. Moreover, after six months, everyone also got revaccinated.
The head of the Ministry of Healthcare is convinced that “there is no other way”: all those epidemics that have already been did not go away without vaccination:
“We forgot about diseases like the plague. But due to the democratic approach to vaccination, measles has returned. It would be a pity if even more modified smallpox and plague return. They did not go away so easily, as they say, “the virus is weakening”: at one time, there were also terrible losses.
We forgot about diseases like the plague. But due to the democratic approach to vaccination, measles has returned. It would be a pity if even more modified smallpox and plague return
Pandemics are cyclical. A hundred years ago, in 1920, the Spanish flu raged, 50 years later — the Hong Kong flu, although it did not develop so widely, in 2020 — the coronavirus infection appeared.
“The disease will be defeated. Whatever the cost," Marat Sadykov summed up.