The Russian Direct Investment Fund and Argentine pharmaceutical company Richmond announced on Tuesday the production of the first locally-made batch of the "Sputnik V" COVID vaccine. Reportedly, a total of 210,000 doses. This makes Argentina the first country in Latin America to start local production of the Russian jab.

This first batch was sent to Moscow for quality control. Large-scale production in Argentina is scheduled to begin in June, and the laboratory says it plans to export vaccines to Latin American nations.

Argentina was the first Latin American country to officially give an emergency authorization to the Gamaleya Center's jab. Vaccination with the Russian drug began in the country late last year, with health workers.

Reportedly, the vaccine produced in Argentina can then be exported to other countries in Central and Latin America.

Sputnik V is currently registered in 60 countries, where 3 billion people live. The effectiveness of the vaccine is 97.6 percent, according to studies on Russians who received both doses between 5th December 2020 and 31st March 2021.

The Russian Federation ambassador to Argentina, Dimitry Feoktistov, told RAE-Argentina to the World that this agreement is not only positive for bilateral relations between the two countries, but also for Latin America in general.

Mr. Feoktistov stressed that the accord "is in line" with the stance expressed by both Russian president Vladimir Putin and his Argentine counterpart, Alberto Fernández on stressing the need to provide "equal and non-discriminatory" access to Covid vaccines.