TASHKENT - Uzbekistan has approved the registration of Chinese and Russian COVID-19 vaccines manufactured by a local pharmaceutical company, the Uzbek government announced Saturday.

Uzbek pharma Jurabek Laboratories has agreed with China's Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical and Russian pharmaceutical company Human Vaccine on the local production of the ZF-UZ-VAC2001 vaccine and the Sputnik V vaccine, according to a decree signed by Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov on Friday.

Health authorities will examine the results of laboratory tests and registration documents of the corresponding vaccines produced by Jurabek Laboratories within five days.

Earlier, Uzbek officials said that the local manufacturer intends to produce 2 million doses of Sputnik V and 10 million doses of the ZF-UZ-VAC2001 vaccine per year.

According to data by the country's health ministry, over 9 million vaccine doses have been administered so far and nearly 1.3 million people have been fully vaccinated.