By Staff, Agencies Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, his son and his sister plan to get the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, Maduro said in an address broadcast on Twitter. Maduro said on Sunday that his son Nicolas Ernesto Maduro Guerra and his sister Maria Teresa Maduro were going to participate in the clinical trials of the Russian coronavirus vaccine.

"When mass vaccination starts, I'll be the first to get it [the vaccine]", Maduro said.

The first batch of the Sputnik V vaccine was delivered to Venezuela on Friday.

Vice President Delcy Rodriguez stressed that Venezuela was the first country in the Western Hemisphere to participate in the third phase of clinical trials of the vaccine.

According to Venezuela's health minister, Carlos Alvarado, two thousand people plan to take part in the third phase of clinical trials of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine in Venezuela.

Russia is the first country in the world to have registered a vaccine against the novel coronavirus.

Sputnik V was developed by the Gamaleya Centre and produced jointly with the Russian Direct Investment Fund [RDIF], and is now at the phase of post-registration trials