Putin getting coronavirus vaccine Tuesday

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that he will receive a shot of a coronavirus vaccine the next day.

The Associated Press reports that Putin announced his plans while speaking at a meeting of government officials and vaccine developers.

He did not specify which version of the coronavirus vaccine he will receive, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying “all of them are good and reliable.” Peskov added that he did not expect Putin’s vaccination to be a “public event.”

Putin’s opponents have criticized him for not getting a vaccine, the AP reports, arguing his apparent reluctance is contributing to overall hesitance among the Russian people. The AP reports that less than 5 percent of Russia’s 146 million people have received a single dose of a vaccine.

In December, it was reported that Putin planned on getting a vaccine shot, though Peskov said he was “waiting until all formalities are completed.”

Citing Russian media, the AP reports that Putin had said he planned on getting a vaccine at the end of summer or beginning of fall, saying there were other vaccines he needed to get first.

Three Russian-made vaccines have been approved in the country, including the Sputnik V, its first, which was criticized by health experts for being approved after having only been tested on a few dozen people.

The results of a phase three clinical trial published in February in the British medical journal The Lancet found that Sputnik V is 91.6 percent effective at stopping the coronavirus.