MOSCOW, June 8 (RAPSI) — The State Duma has adopted in the first reading a bill on the inclusion of vaccination against COVID-19 in the National Calendar of Preventive Vaccinations, according to the official website of the lower house of the Russian parliament. 

The bill envisages that the National Calendar of Preventive Vaccinations is to be supplemented by the new coronavirus infection.

Nevertheless, as noted by the Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin, vaccination will remain voluntary, the statement reads.

According to an explanatory note to the document, changes proposed by the bill will allow the procurement of preventive drugs against the new coronavirus infection COVID-19 at the expense of the federal budget of the Russian Federation. To vaccinate 60% of the country’s population by the end of 2021, about 29,701,000 additional doses of vaccines are needed, according to the note.