One billion pre-orders for Russia's COVID-19 vaccine
The head of the Russian Sovereign Fund, Kirill Dmitriev, announced Tuesday that twenty foreign countries had previously requested "more than a billion doses" of the Russian vaccine against Covid-19, indicating that the third phase of the tests would start Wednesday.
The head of the fund involved in the development of the vaccine said that industrial production will start in September.
Dmitriev said that the vaccine was called "Sputnik V," after the name of the Soviet satellite, which was the first spacecraft to be placed in orbit, and "V" represented the first letter of the word vaccine in several foreign languages.
And Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Tuesday that the Nikolai Gamalia Center for Research in Epidemiology and Microbiology had developed "the first" vaccine against the emerging corona virus, stressing that it provides "sustainable immunity."
For its part, the Russian Ministry of Health confirmed that the double vaccination "will allow the formation of a long immunity" that may last "two years."
In the weeks leading up to this announcement, foreign scientists expressed concern about the rapid development of such a vaccine and called on the World Health Organization to respect "clear guidelines and guidelines" for developing this type of product.
According to the Russian authorities, teachers and medical personnel will start receiving the vaccine from this August, before putting it into circulation on January 1, 2021.
For his part, Dmitriev denounced "coordinated media attacks" against the Russian vaccine "that tried to distort and conceal the accuracy of the Russian approach, and stressed that the safety and health of ordinary people was hostage to political disputes."