Russia announces the production of the first batch of the Coronavirus vaccine
Russia announced on Saturday that it had produced the first batch of a vaccine against the emerging corona virus, which was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week, and several countries have questioned it.
"The first batch of the new vaccine against the Coronavirus, developed by the Gamalia Research Center, was produced," the Russian Ministry of Health said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies.
On Tuesday, Putin said that the first vaccine against the Coronavirus "sufficiently effective and gives sustainable immunity" was produced, developed by the Nikolai Gamalia Center for Research in Epidemiology and Microbiology in cooperation with the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The president confirmed that one of his daughters received the vaccine, which he called "Sputnik" in honor of the political and scientific victory that the Soviet Union achieved during the Cold War by successfully sending "Sputnik" the first satellite into space in 1957.
However, Western researchers questioned this announcement, with some even considering that a hastily developed vaccine could be dangerous, while the final phase of trials began only this week.
The director of the Nikolai Gamalia Center, Alexander Goentzburg, told TASS Saturday that the volunteers participating in the final stage of the test would receive two doses.
The Russian sovereign fund involved in the development process of the vaccine stated that industrial production is scheduled to start in September. And the head of the fund, Kirill Dmitriev, announced Tuesday that 20 foreign countries had previously ordered more than a billion doses of the Russian vaccine.
Since the start of the research, the Nikolai Gamalia Center has been accused of violating standard protocols to speed up the process.
So far, Russia has not published a detailed study to independently verify its results.
Russia's Health Minister Mikhail Murashko announced this week that the vaccine will be available first for caregivers and then for all Russian volunteers.
Russia, which has recorded more than 917,000 confirmed infections, is the fourth country most affected by the epidemic in the world, after the United States, Brazil and India.