Russia suffers vaccine delays as it breaks its record of infections

• Direct. Latest news on the coronavirus pandemic

• Health.Russia already distributes the first batches of its vaccine

• Trials The Russian vaccine publishes its results: no adverse effects and acceptable immune response

The Russian coronavirus vaccine faces

that could delay its mass production, admitted President Vladimir Putin. The bad news comes just as the

, a record level in the past. country since the pandemic began.

At the same time, the Kremlin has admitted there is a shortage of doctors across the country, with staff from eight of the 25 testing clinics in Moscow confirming to

ters

Thursday they had

They had used up their assigned doses.

A representative of the organization that oversees the vaccine trials, Crocus Medical, told the agency that it expected the vaccines to be restarted around November 10.

"The only remaining issue now is to guarantee the necessary volume of industrial production," Putin said at an investment forum. Russia faces challenges to increase production of its vaccine and the president himself.

s.

But the Russian Health Ministry denied the alleged widespread suspension of clinical trials of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V. "The tests continue, the expected number of vaccinated volunteers, 40,000, will be reached," the adviser to the Minister of Health told Sputnik. Alexei Kuznetsov.

DELAYS IN MASS VACCINATION

In fact, the Moscow authorities are preparing a massive vaccination against COVID-19.

The city is working on a large network of vaccination rooms.

Moscow residents who want to get vaccinated will be able to do so even next month if enough doses are delivered by then, Deputy Mayor Anastasia Rakova said. The vaccine consists of two components: the first is based on human adenovirus type 26;

and the second, in recombinant human adenovirus type 5. The drug is administered twice, leaving an interval of 21 days between both injections.

Sputnik V's developer, the state-controlled Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, confirmed that it has slowed down the vaccines of new volunteers to focus on the components of the second dose.

two testing phases

.

The third and final is currently being carried out in 40,000 people, of which 10,000 must obtain the placebo to

check the effectiveness of the vaccine

.

About 9,000 Moscow residents have received both injections of the Sputnik V vaccine as part of a large-scale trial that has not yet completed. Russia has registered the vaccine.

Sputnik V on August 11

.

The drug is produced in cooperation with the Russian Fund for Direct Investment. The country has experienced

an increase in new cases in recent weeks

, which has led the authorities to open temporary hospitals and urge the population to take precautionary measures.

2,500 high-risk people (mainly doctors and teachers) have already been vaccinated

.

But mass vaccination of the population is not yet possible, since the necessary number of doses of the vaccine has not yet been delivered, as the deputy mayor herself acknowledged in statements to Russia 24.

'VACCINATED' AND CONTAGED

These days the Russians follow in the media the evolution of the famous who were given to the vaccination trials.

Deputy Valery Gartung, number two of the group of deputies of the Fair Russia party in the State Duma (lower house of the Russian Parliament), announced on Facebook on October 21 that he had tested positive for COVID-19 after participating in tests of the vaccine.

Gartung, who initially had no symptoms of the disease, was one of 40,000 people participating in the phase III trials of Sputnik V. This does not necessarily mean that the vaccine will not work, since

a quarter of the study participants did not actually receive

.

This is standard practice in medical trials.

"Now I have tested positive, which means that clearly what I received was the placebo," Gartung told the news outlet 'RBC'. Gamaleya director Alexander Gintsburg confirmed this week that

some of the volunteers contracted Covid-19 after receiving the vaccine

.

He agrees that they must have received a placebo.

Gintsburg believes it will be possible to find out in mid-November, before the trials conclude, while Russia has started trials of a second vaccine.

EpiVacCorona is based on epitopes used against coronavirus

.

An epitope, known as an antigenic determinant, is a very small portion of a molecule that is recognized by the immune system.

Thus, the immune system decides that it has identified a threat and activates an immune response whose objective is to prevent the development and spread of the infection.The head of the Russian consumer protection office, Ana Popova participated in trials of this vaccine and she has been very satisfied: "I have antibodies, and I take the vaccine perfectly," Popova said in statements broadcast on the television channel

Rossiya 24

The Vector laboratory officially registered the

EpiVacCorona vaccine

on October 14, after successfully completing phases 1 and 2 of the trials at the end of September.

More than 30 countries are interested in buying a Russian coronavirus vaccine, he told

Sputnik

the Minister of Industry and Commerce of Russia, Denis Manturov.

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