Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Alisher Usmanov offered to pay for 500,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine as part of the first stage of vaccination of the population. President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev announced this today.

The head of Uzbekistan noted that Usmanov said that he would purchase 500,000 doses of the vaccine out of the planned 1 million at his own expense, Gazeta.uz reports.

At the same time, the President added that Alisher Usmanov asked for the first 50,000 doses to be given to Namangan region. “We are considering this issue,” he said.

As a reminder, on 17 February, Uzbekistan approved the Russian Sputnik V vaccine for mass vaccination of the population. Uzbekistan plans to purchase 1 million doses of Sputnik V vaccine.

It should be noted that the order of the Ministry of Health primarily envisages the vaccination of persons over 65 years old, medical workers, persons with chronic diseases or registered with dispensaries, employees of the armed forces and law enforcement agencies, journalists, bloggers, workers of preschool and educational organizations, students, students abroad, and labor migrants.