MOSCOW, April 28. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the government to submit a report by April 30 on the plan of developing coronavirus vaccines, the Kremlin press office reported on Tuesday.

This order is on the list of instructions issued by the president after his meeting with the medical community, the Kremlin press office said.

"The government shall submit a scheduled plan for developing vaccines to prevent the novel coronavirus infection and carrying out the state registration of these vaccines using the accelerated procedure and launching them into industrial production," the document reads.

April 30, 2020 is stipulated as the deadline for fulfilling the Russian president’s instruction.

The Russian government has also been instructed to take measures based on the available international experience for the pharmacological disease prevention among medical workers and other persons who have contacts with novel coronavirus patients. The government is required to submit a report on this issue to the president by May 15.

The Russian president also instructed the Health Ministry to ensure that professional medical non-profit organizations work out and approve clinical recommendations for treating the coronavirus taking into account the available experience of providing aid to patients infected with this disease, the document says.

Coronavirus spread

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 3,000,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 211,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 923,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

To date, a total of 93,558 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 8,456 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 867 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.