UN, December 4. /TASS/. Russia condemns all attempts of some countries’ to politicize COVID-19 pandemic, including the issue of the vaccination against the disease, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said addressing the UN General Assembly’s session.
"We condemn intentions of a number of countries as well as of some organizations to politicize COVID-19 pandemic in regard to a host of issues, including the population’s vaccination."
"Russia is taking an active part in the international efforts on the fight against COVID-19 at all levels, including our help to pandemic-hit countries both at the bilateral and multilateral formats," he said.
On August 11, Russia registered the world’s first vaccine against the novel coronavirus. The vaccine, dubbed Sputnik V, was developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Health Ministry, and its clinical trials were successfully completed in June-July.
The Russian health ministry said on August 15 that production of the vaccine had been launched. The third, post-registration, stage of clinical tests began in Moscow on September 7. Volunteers were inoculated with the first dose of the vaccine on September. As many as 40,000 people are involved in the trials, with 10,000 of them being inoculated with a placebo.
According to the interim test results, the vaccine’s efficiency exceeds 95% on the 42nd day after inoculation with the first dose in case the patient received the second dose as well.
Orders for more than 1.2 billion doses of the Sputnik V vaccine have come from more than 50 countries. International partners of the Russian Direct Investment Fund in India, Brazil, China, South Korea and other countries will manufacture the vaccine for exports.
Two domestically-developed anti-coronavirus vaccines have been registered in Russia. One of them, Sputnik V, was developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Health Ministry, the other one, Epivaccorona, was developed by the Vector Center.
Another one, developed by the Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune and Biological Products is expected to be registered soon.
Global coronavirus crisis
In late December 2019, Chinese officials informed 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 65,535,400 people have been infected worldwide and more than 1,511,900 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 45,375,900 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.