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Coronavirus pandemic

Russian sanitary watchdog chief says sure of safety of Russian anti-coronavirus vaccine

Anna Popova stressed that there had never been vaccines with questionable safety on the Russian market

Chief of Russia’s sanitary watchdog Anna Popova Dmitry Astakhov/POOL/TASS

Chief of Russia’s sanitary watchdog Anna Popova

© Dmitry Astakhov/POOL/TASS

MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/. Chief of Russia’s sanitary watchdog Anna Popova said on Sunday she is confident in the efficiency and safety of anti-coronavirus vaccines that are being developed in Russia.

"I have no doubts that the vaccine [against the novel coronavirus] that is to reach people will be absolutely safe and, of course, efficient," she said in an interview with the Vesti news program on the Rossiya-1 television channel.

She stressed that there had never been vaccines with questionable safety on the Russian market. "We are very careful about the quality of vaccines and exercise very strict control of their quality. We take into account any skin reactions after using any vaccine," she added.

According to the sanitary watchdog’s chief, not a single vaccine developer in the world has complete knowledge about coronavirus immunity sustainability after inoculation. "I would like to hope that it (immunity - TASS) will be sustainable and lasting," she said, adding that vaccination protocol for Russia-developed vaccines envisages two inoculations. "It means that the first inoculation is to be followed by the second one in a span of 21 days," she noted.

Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said earlier that clinical tests of an anti-coronavirus vaccine developed by the ministry’s Gamalei National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology had been completed. Another vaccine, the one developed by the Vektor State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology of the Russian sanitary watchdog, is at a stage of clinical tests. Mass vaccination against the novel coronavirus is planned to be launched in October.

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