MOSCOW, May 27. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has received UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s invitation to attend an online summit on COVID-19 vaccine, but a decision on his participation will be announced later, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.
"It [the invitation] has been received via diplomatic channels," Peskov said. "As soon as the decision is formalized, we will inform you."
The British government will hold the Global Vaccine Summit 2020 on June 4. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson earlier officially invited Putin to participate in the event. The main task of the summit is to mobilize resources the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations will need to ensure universal availability of the vaccine against the novel coronavirus, the British embassy in Moscow said.
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 5,701,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 352,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 2,445,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.
To date, a total of 370,680 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 142,208 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 3,968 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.