Twitter lifts temporary suspension on account for Russian COVID-19 vaccine

Micro-blogging platform Twitter lifted restrictions briefly imposed on the official account promoting the Russian Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, the website showed on Thursday.

The account was blocked for around an hour earlier in the day with a statement from Twitter saying they had noted “some unusual activity” on the page.

“This account was temporarily locked in error by an automated spam filter. This action has been reversed and the account is now fully operational,” Twitter said, Reuters reported.

The Sputnik V account said that, according to an explanation from Twitter, the brief restriction of access was due to “a possible security breach from Virginia, USA”.

The account did not provide any further details.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, Russia’s wealth fund chief Kirill Dmitriev said, the country will submit a formal application to the European Union next month for approval of the Sputnik V vaccine, Reuters reported.

Peer-reviewed results of the vaccine would be released shortly and would demonstrate its high efficacy.

The vaccine is planned to be produced in seven countries. Dmitriev added that regulators in nine countries are expected to approve the vaccine for domestic use this month.

It has already been approved in Argentina, Belarus, Serbia and elsewhere.

Russia, which has the world’s fourth-highest number of COVID-19 cases, plans to begin mass vaccinations next week.