OPTIMISTIC

Putin: Russia Will Have Herd Immunity to COVID-19 by Summer’s End

The Russian president made the claim on a hagiographic broadcast on state TV.

Vladimir Putin believes Russia will achieve herd immunity against COVID-19 by late summer, according to state media. On the latest installment of “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin,” a weekly show about the Russian president’s accomplishments that is broadcast on state TV channel Rossiya 1, Putin said, “In order to make this happen, some 70% of [the] adult population should get the jab. If [mass vaccination] goes at the same pace as now, I believe that in summer, by the end of summer we will achieve, we should achieve this figure.” More than six million Russians have so far received one dose of Russia’s homegrown Sputnik V vaccine, and more than four million have been fully vaccinated, according to TASS, a government news outfit.

Meanwhile, Russian doctors working at the hospital where opposition figure Alexey Navalny was treated after he was poisoned last summer continue to die mysteriously, reported CNN correspondent Ana Cabrera.