Srinagar: Amid the rising COVID cases and deaths across the world, Russia is all set to register its first Coronavirus vaccine tomorrow on August 12, 2020, international media reported.
The vaccine was launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin, touting it as the world’s first such vaccine.
The president, according to reports, has asked the country’s Health Minister Mikhail Murashko to keep him informed about the vaccine and developments related to it.
After completing all the three phases of human clinical trials successfully, Russia’s one of coronavirus vaccine candidates, developed by Gamaleya Research Institute and the Russian Defence Ministry, is scheduled to launch on 12 August, Country’s Deputy Health Minister Oleg Gridnev told international media in a press briefing.
Pertinently, the Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, has accepted Russia’s offer of its coronavirus vaccine, volunteering to take the first shot as a “gesture of trust and gratitude.”
“When the vaccine arrives, I will have myself injected in public. Experiment on me first, that’s fine with me,” Duterte said in a briefing on Monday night.
By now, Russia has two COVID vaccine candidates in the race – one, a vaccine being developed by the Vektor State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology.
The second is a vaccine being produced by the Gamaleya Scientific Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology along with the Russian Defence Ministry.
Further, the president emphasised that the vaccine underwent the necessary tests. One of his two daughters, according to reports, has received a shot of the vaccine and is feeling well.
Earlier, the Russian Defence Ministry said that the final check-up of volunteers testing the coronavirus vaccine, which is developed by Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, showed immunity in all participants.
Besides this, there are over 150 coronavirus vaccines in various stages of development in several countries with a few making advanced progress in clinical trials.
In India, a Pune based vaccine manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India (SII) has decided to manufacture 100 million COVID vaccine doses which will be capped at Rs 225 per dose.
While the Oxford coronavirus vaccine and a Chinese vaccine showing positive results in the first round of human trials, the Moderna has shown positive results among mice and developed immunity against the disease upon testing.
India’s Covaxin, developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech has also entered the human trial stage and is expected to come out with results in a month.
However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned world governments against “vaccine nationalism” and urged leaders to make plans on how to share life-saving inoculations against coronavirus.
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the threat of COVID can only be snuffed out with global coordination, especially when a vaccine is developed.
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