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Coronavirus pandemic

WHO views nine Russian COVID-19 vaccines as promising

To date, a total of 68,622 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia

© Yegor Aleyev/TASS

MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/. The World Health Organization (WHO) has included nine coronavirus vaccines that are being created in Russia on a list of promising options, according to a statement from the Russian government’s coronavirus hotline.

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"The WHO has put nine COVID-19 vaccines that are being developed in Russia on its list of promising options. These include six vaccines created by the Novosibirsk-based Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology… two vaccines developed by the Biocad company… and a vaccine made by the St. Petersburg Research Institute of Vaccines and Serums," the statement reads.

According to the hotline, one of Vector’s versions is a peptide vaccine based on a platform that was previously used for creating a vaccine against the Ebola virus. Along with that, a subunit vaccine, a live vector vaccine based on the measles virus, a recombinant intranasal vaccine based on the influenza A virus, a vector vaccine based on the vesicular stomatitis virus and an mRNA vaccine are in the works.

Biocad has developed a live viral vector vaccine based on an attenuated flu virus (together with the Institute of Experimental Medicine) and a liposome encapsulated vaccine. The St. Petersburg Research Institute of Vaccines and Serums, in turn, has come up with a vaccine based on recombinant protein and nanoparticles.

Coronavirus pandemic

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 2,700,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 191,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 750,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

To date, a total of 68,622 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 5,568 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 615 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.

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