In the midst of the race to develop and distribute a vaccine against the new coronavirus, the Russian government said Sunday that more than 60,000 volunteers have signed up for its first Covid-19 vaccine, Sputnik V in Moscow, according to a report.
“More than 60,000 people have signed up as volunteers, several thousand people have passed the medical tests required to register as possible candidates for testing,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin told reporters, according to the Russian news agency. TASS.
More than 700 people have been injected with the coronavirus vaccine and “they all feel fine,” he said.
Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko told reporters earlier that the first batch of Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine is likely to be delivered to all regions of the country by September 14, according to TASS.
It also reported that 250 Moscow residents received the dose of its Covid-19 vaccine, according to the report.
The vast majority of them are in good health, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters.
The Sputnik V Covid vaccine, which is developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology under the Russian Ministry of Health, can obtain permission to release a batch of its vaccine for civilian use, said the institute’s deputy director of research. and associate member of the Russian Academy. of Sciences, Denis Logunov said previously, according to a report.
On August 11, Russia became the first country to license a Covid-19 vaccine, calling it “Sputnik V” in homage to the world’s first satellite, launched by the Soviet Union. But Western experts have warned against its use until all tests and internationally approved regulatory steps have been taken. The vaccine is in phase 3 trials.
The vaccine produced an antibody response in all participants in the early-stage trials, according to results previously published by The Lancet medical journal that were hailed by Moscow as a response to its critics.
Results from the two trials, conducted in June-July this year and involving 76 participants, showed that 100% of the participants developed antibodies to the new coronavirus and had no serious side effects, The Lancet said.
However, a group of international scientists questioned the results of the Lancet medical journal, saying that some of the findings seemed unlikely, Bloomberg reported.
The researchers raised concerns about seemingly identical antibody levels in several study participants who were inoculated with the experimental vaccine. This and other patterns in the data present “several different points of concern,” according to an open letter written by Temple University professor Enrico Bucci and signed by more than a dozen other scientists.
Meanwhile, Russia reported 6,196 new coronavirus cases on Monday, the highest number on record in 24 hours since July 18, bringing its national count to 1,109,595, the fourth-largest in the world.
Authorities also reported 71 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 19,489.
With contributions from agencies
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