MOSCOW, July 16. /TASS/. The first stage of testing of a Russian vaccine against the novel coronavirus developed at the N. F. Gamaleya Federal Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology went successfully, and the second stage will conclude on August 3, 2020, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev said during an online press conference on Thursday.

"Yesterday, the first stage of clinical testing of a Russian vaccine ended <…>, it went very successfully. The second stage of testing of the Russian vaccine will conclude on August 3," he said.

According to the RDIF, Russia will produce about 30 mln doses of COVID-19 vaccine by the end of 2020, with the required amount of 50 mln doses. The full vaccination of Russians may be complete by early 2021.

Globally, about 200 mln doses of vaccines are expected to be produced by the end of 2020. "According to predictions, next year, about 3 bln vaccines based on the adenovirus vector will be produced: not only the Russian vaccine, but the Oxford University vaccine and the Chinese vaccine as well," Dmitriev added.

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 13,717,900 people have been infected worldwide and more than 587,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 8,172,400 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

To date, 752,797 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 531,692 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 11,937 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.