MALENKOYE VILLAGE /Republic of Crimea/, July 27. /TASS/. Russia will be able to manufacture anti-coronavirus vaccine enough to carry out mass vaccination by the beginning of 2021, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Sergeyev said on Monday.

"When we speak about mass vaccination of the population, about tens and hundreds of millions of vaccine doses, obviously, it will take time. I would say that if everything is all right, as we plan and as big companies in other countries plan, it will probably be possible at the beginning of next year," he said.

The scientist is very cautious about prospects of mass vaccination against the coronavirus infection. "Vaccine development is a long thing. You see, if you want to prove that the candidate vaccine you have developed really works for, say, six months, then clinical tests of such a vaccine should take a long time," he stressed.

According to the academy president, it is necessary to monitor the vaccine-induced antibodies for at least six months. "Naturally, it terms of some mobilization decisions, when it is necessary to do something quickly to protect risk groups, to protect doctors working in the so-called red zone, work can been accelerated," Sergeyev 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 16,431,700 people have been infected worldwide and more than 652,400 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 10,056,300 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

To date, 818,120 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 603,329 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 13,354 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.