Moscow to open COVID-19 vaccination centres on Saturday - mayor

A school teacher receives a jab while being injected with Sputnik V (Gam-COVID-Vac) vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a clinic in the town of Domodedovo near Moscow, Russia December 3, 2020. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Moscow will open its new COVID-19 vaccination centres on Saturday and the first people to receive the shot will be teachers, doctors and social workers, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Thursday.

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered a large-scale voluntary vaccination programme against COVID-19 to begin next week across Russia, saying teachers and doctors should be first in line to get the flagship Sputnik V vaccine.

People in Moscow will be able to register for the jab online from Friday, Sobyanin said in a statement on his website.

A medical worker demonstrates a vial with Sputnik V (Gam-COVID-Vac) vaccine during the vaccination against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a clinic in the town of Domodedovo near Moscow, Russia December 3, 2020. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Russia, which has resisted imposing stringent lockdown measures, reported a record 28,145 new infections earlier on Thursday, including 7,750 in Moscow.

(Reporting by Maxim Rodionov; writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Alex Richardson and Nick Macfie)

A school teacher receives a jab while being injected with Sputnik V (Gam-COVID-Vac) vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a clinic in the town of Domodedovo near Moscow, Russia December 3, 2020. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

A medical worker fills a syringe with Sputnik V (Gam-COVID-Vac) vaccine before administering an injection during the vaccination against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a clinic in the town of Domodedovo near Moscow, Russia December 3, 2020. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

FILE PHOTO: A medic of the regional hospital receives Russia's "Sputnik-V" vaccine shot against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Tver, Russia October 12, 2020. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva