Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, during a visit to the State Research Center for Virology and Biotechnology "Vector", assessed the situation with mass vaccination against COVID-19 in Russia.
“I am sure that we will absolutely have to complete the bulk of the mass vaccination by autumn,” Mishustin said.
Mikhail Mishustin on vaccination
On the eve of the Acting Head of the Department for the Organization of State Control of the Quality of Medical Products of Roszdravnadzor, Alla Trapkova said that as of March 1, 7.885 million sets of Sputnik V vaccine doses and 45 thousand doses of EpiVacCorona had been released into civil circulation in the country.
"Currently, the recently registered vaccine" KoviVac "produced by the Chumakov Institute is being monitored, the release of which, after successfully passing the controls, is expected in the second half of March," RIA Novosti quotes Trapkova.
According to her, by May, the total production is expected to be more than 50 million kits of vaccines: "We can say that the vaccine production plan is increasing every month."
Meanwhile, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko announced the completion of the second phase of clinical trials of a single-component vaccine against coronavirus infection Sputnik Light.
"The second phase of clinical trials has been completed, and now they (results. -
RT
) are sent for expert evaluation," said Murashko.
On February 17, specialists from the Gamaleya Center received permission from the Ministry of Health to move to the third phase of trials of the Sputnik Light single-component vaccine against coronavirus.
Their completion is scheduled for January 28, 2022.
On February 27, the first participants in the study of a single-component drug based on Sputnik V were vaccinated in Moscow.
In addition, according to Murashko, experts from the Ministry of Health completed an assessment of the EpiVacCorona vaccine, developed by the Novosibirsk Vector Center, for use by persons over 60 years old.
Recall that post-registration clinical studies of "EpiVacCorona" on elderly volunteers ended in early February.
"The vaccine" EpiVacCorona "has successfully passed an open clinical study of the II-IV phase among persons aged 60 years and older.
As a result of studies that have shown the immunogenicity and high safety of this drug for elderly patients, the EpiVacCorona vaccine was approved for use among people over 60 years old, ”the Rospotrebnadzor said.
It also became known that Roszdravnadzor had not received reports of "unforeseen adverse reactions not specified in the instructions for medical use" of the Sputnik V and EpiVacCorona vaccines.
RIA News
© Vitaly Belousov
Meanwhile, new side effects have been reported for the mRNA-1273 vaccine from the American company Moderna.
This is stated in a letter from American doctors published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
According to them, when studying the reactions to vaccination in 30 thousand people, 12 patients after an average of eight days revealed delayed side effects - skin inflammation.
“They all appeared near the injection site after the initial local and systemic symptoms associated with vaccination had completely disappeared.
In five cases, the reaction was the appearance of an area of 3 degree spots (more than 10 cm in diameter).
Some patients had concomitant systemic side effects, two of them had additional skin reactions ... Symptoms lasted from 2 to 11 days (median period - 6 days), ”the article says.
We add that the mRNA-1273 vaccine of the American company Moderna at the beginning of January received approval for use from the European Union's drug regulator - the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
The day before, the EMA Committee on Medicines for Medical Use began a consistent examination of the registration dossier of the Russian vaccine against COVID-19 Sputnik V.
The evaluation of the drug will be carried out according to the standards of efficacy, safety and quality established in the European Union.
The general director of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev, in an interview with RT, expressed the hope that politics would not be involved in the issue of granting a registration permit.
“The main thing is that the review process has started.
We understand that the European Medicines Agency is very competent, so we hope that the assessment will be based on scientific evidence and not on policy, ”said Dmitriev.
According to him, the EU must decide for itself "whether it wants to see Sputnik V in its vaccination strategy."
He also pointed to the high demand for the Russian vaccine from other countries.
“We are completely open and believe that obstacles such as mistrust and all kinds of lobbying efforts against Sputnik that we are seeing will not work in light of our shared need to follow the path of saving human lives.
I think more and more politicians understand this.
Instead of creating obstacles to ensure the choice of vaccines, it is much wiser to speed up the process and give it an impetus in order to achieve a quick and optimal consideration of all information, ”stated the CEO of RDIF.
COVID-19 statistics
Over the past day, 11,024 new cases of coronavirus have been detected in Russia.
15 464 patients were discharged, 462 people died from complications that developed against the background of COVID-19 and concomitant diseases.
The total number of cases of coronavirus infection recorded in the country since the beginning of the pandemic has reached 4,301,159. 3,885,321 people have recovered, and 88,285 have died.
The largest number of COVID-19 cases were registered in Moscow (1,757), St. Petersburg (983) and the Moscow region (750).
The press service of Rospotrebnadzor reported that more than 112.5 million laboratory tests were carried out in the Russian Federation for the presence of coronavirus.
More than 539 thousand people remain under medical supervision.