MOSCOW, June 15. /TASS/. The novel coronavirus may not go even after an efficient vaccine is developed, Tatiana Ruzhentsova, head of clinical research department of the Russian sanitary watchdog’s research institute of epidemiology, said on Monday.
"By far not all vaccines and not all medicines we have can exterminate an infecting agent totally," she said in an interview with the Moskva-24 television channel. "Even when a vaccine and an efficient medicine are developed, there is a very small probability that the virus will be gone for good."
She warned that violation of sanitary and protective measures "may trigger a surge [in morbidity], which we see in other countries."
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova said earlier that it was planned to launch production of an anti-coronavirus vaccine that was developed by the Vektor institute in September. Mass production of a vaccine developed by the St. Petersburg research institute of vaccines of the Federal Medical Biological Agency will be launched in December 2020.
To date, 537,210 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 284,539 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 7,091 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.