Yesterday, Russia launched a drug that has been approved to treat new coronavirus patients, with the number of HIV cases in the country exceeding half a million.
The Russian sovereign wealth fund, which has supported trials on the drug and has a 50% stake in its maker Kim Rar, said that the first shipments of the anti-viral drug, called Avivavir, had reached some hospitals and clinics across the country.
The Ministry of Health approved the use of the drug under a rapid special process, while clinical trials, which are being conducted for a shorter period and in smaller numbers than in other countries, are still ongoing.
There is still no vaccine for the "Covid-19" disease caused by infection with the emerging coronavirus, and several drug trials in humans have not yet been shown to be effective.
The head of the sovereign fund, Kirill Dimitriev, said last week that there were plans to produce enough of the drug to treat 60,000 patients per month.
He said, yesterday, that more than 10 countries requested supplies of the drug.
He added that negotiations are underway to supply medicine to almost all Russian regions, and that seven of the country's regions, which exceed 80 provinces, received the first shipments.
Meanwhile, Russia recorded 8,779 new infections in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases to 502 thousand and 436, and thus remains the third country most affected by the epidemic after the United States and Brazil.
The authorities have counted 174 virus deaths in the past 24 hours, out of 6,532 officially registered deaths, and more than 261,000 people have recovered.
The capital, Moscow, raised the epicenter of the "Covid-19" epidemic in the country, on Tuesday, the isolation measures imposed on the population at the end of March, based on encouraging figures and the decline of new infections. The border was also partially reopened, especially for Russians with professional or family motives.