- Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he wants tourists to visit Russia to get the new Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine.
- The Sputnik V is still under review by the World Health Organization and European Medicines Agency.
- Russia is currently reporting nearly 9,000 new COVID-19 cases per day.
Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to encourage "vaccine tourism," where foreign citizens can visit the country to get a free Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine.
"There is widespread practice where business people and heads of companies come specifically to Russia to get a jab against the coronavirus," Putin told the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the Moscow Times reported.
He added that he wanted "to be able to organize the conditions for foreign citizens to come to Russia and get vaccinated on a commercial basis."
The Russian Direct Investment Fund, the organization that's promoting Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, said on Twitter on Friday that vaccine tourism would launch by July.
The country is advocating for the Sputnik V, but the vaccine is still under review by the World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency. Unlike the Moderna and Pfizer "MRNA vaccines" that are popular in the US, the Sputnik V is a "viral vector vaccine" akin to the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines.
According to the Moscow Times' COVID-19 case tracker, Russia is currently reporting around 9,000 new COVID-19 cases per day.