Moscow (AFP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Tuesday that Russia had developed the "first" vaccine against the new coronavirus, assuring that it gave "lasting immunity".

In the weeks preceding this announcement, foreign scientists expressed their concern at the speed of the development of such a vaccine and the WHO had called for the respect of "clear guidelines and directives" in the matter.

"This morning, for the first time in the world, a vaccine against the new coronavirus was recorded", said Vladimir Putin, adding: "I know that it is quite effective, that it gives lasting immunity".

The president even said that one of his daughters had been inoculated with the vaccine that was developed by the Nikolai Gamaleia Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, with the Russian Ministry of Defense.

"She took part in the experiment," he said, according to Russian agencies claiming that she had had a little temperature after the two inoculations, "and that's it".

The health ministry said that the double inoculation "made it possible to form a long immunity", estimating that it could last "two years".

"The most important thing is of course that we can ensure in the future an unconditional security as for the use of this vaccine and as for its effectiveness", still said Mr. Poutine, "I hope that will be the case".

The Minister of Health Mikhaïl Mourachko indicated besides that "clinical trials on several thousand people will continue".

- Vaccinate medical personnel -

The Deputy Prime Minister in charge of health issues, Tatiana Golikova said she hoped to start the vaccination of medical personnel in the coming weeks.

"We really hope that September, or even late August-early September, the vaccine is produced and the first category to be vaccinated will be medical personnel," she said according to Russian agencies. Teachers should also be among the first to be vaccinated.

It will be put into circulation on January 1, 2021 among the population, according to the National Drug Register of the Ministry of Health, consulted by Russian news agencies.

This vaccine is viral vector, that is to say it uses as a carrier another virus that has been transformed and adapted to fight Covid-19. It uses adenovirus, a technology also chosen by the University of Oxford.

Scientists from the Gamaleïa center were criticized in May for having personally injected their prototype vaccine, a method breaking with the usual protocols intended to speed up the scientific process as much as possible.

So far, Russia has not published a detailed study of the results of its trials to establish the effectiveness of the products it says it has developed.

At the beginning of August, when Russia announced that its vaccine was almost ready, the WHO was doubtful, recalling that any pharmaceutical product should "be subjected to all the various trials and tests before being approved for deployment".

- Millions of doses -

WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier then indicated that Russia had not transmitted anything "official".

"Between finding or having the possibility of having a vaccine that works and having taken all the steps, there is a big difference", he indicated.

Russia had ensured in recent weeks the upcoming production of hundreds of thousands of doses of vaccines against the new coronavirus and "several million" from the beginning of next year.

Russia has been working for months, like many other countries in the world, on several vaccine projects against Covid-19.

A second vaccine is being designed at the Vektor State Research Center (in Siberia) and is also undergoing clinical trials which are due to be completed in September.

© 2020 AFP