After being the first country to grant regulatory approval to a coronavirus vaccine, Russia now says it will be administered primarily for doctors within the next two weeks. He also specified that this would be done on a voluntary basis. “The first packages of the medical vaccine against the coronavirus infection will be received within the next two weeks, primarily for doctors”, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said on Wednesday, 12 August.
Earlier in the week, President Vladimir Putin had announced that Russia had become the first country to grant regulatory approval to a COVID-19 vaccine. But the move raised questions as the vaccine has not yet completed its final trials. Added to that, the director of the Gamaleya Institue, which has developed the vaccine said that clinical trials would be published once they have been assessed by the country’s own experts.
World Health Organization (WHO) has however said that it’s looking forward to reviewing clinical trials of the Coronavirus vaccine developed in Russia. “WHO is in touch with Russian scientists and authorities, and looks forward to reviewing details of the trials,” the United Nations health agency said in a statement. “WHO welcomes all advances in COVID-19 vaccine research and development.”
The WHO says 28 of more than 150 potential vaccines are currently being actively tested on humans, among which six have reached Phase 3, the final stage when candidate drugs are tested on large groups of people.
