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Coronavirus pandemic

WHO establishes dialogue with Russian developers of COVID-19 vaccine

According to the WHO, there are currently about 170 COVID-19 vaccines in development across the world

© Pyotr Kovalyov/TASS

MOSCOW, November 19. /TASS/. The World Health Organization (WHO) has established dialogue with Russian developers of a COVID-19 vaccine "Sputnik V" in order to assess the vaccine, WHO Representative in Russia Melita Vujnovic said on Rossiya-24 TV channel on Wednesday.

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"Russian developers handed over the files to the WHO, like other developers. <…> Dialogue has been established between developers and the WHO department, which is making an assessment of the procedure (of vaccine development - TASS)," she said. The WHO official added that after the procedure is concluded, there will be a corresponding statement published on the WHO website.

Vujnovic noted that if there are enough vaccine doses, up to 2 bln people will be vaccinated by the end of 2021. "We hope this will be enough to decrease the [infection] rate," she added.

According to the WHO, there are currently about 170 COVID-19 vaccines in development across the world. Russia registered the first COVID-19 vaccine on August 11 by the name of "Sputnik V." The vaccine was developed by the Gamaleya Federal Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology. Post-registration trials of the vaccine are currently underway.

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