Castillo: Sputnik-V vaccine to be produced in Peru

President Pedro Castillo announced Monday that after negotiations with the Russian government, a Sputnik V vaccine production plant will be set up in Peru. The Ministry of Health will provide further details at a later date, Castillo said in a brief, televised address to the nation. Russian coronavirus vaccines are already being manufactured in Argentina.

So far, Peru has used only the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech jabs, developed in a US-German partnership.

Other Latin American countries that have used the Russian vaccine in the region include Venezuela, Mexico, Bolivia, and Guatemala. Since the start of the pandemic, more than 198,000 people have died in Peru and over 2 million have been infected, according to the Ministry of Health.