MOSCOW, December 14. /TASS/. Russia and Cuba may carry out joint research and testing of drugs that can be used to treat COVID-19 patients, Russian First Deputy Health Minister Igor Kagramanyan said on Monday.

"As a current example [of cooperation] <…> the Cuban side offered to carry out joint research and clinical testing of a Cuban and a Russian drug in cooperation with a Russian pharmaceutical company, namely to treat novel coronavirus patients," he said during a session of the Russian Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Foreign Affairs Committee.

Since the start of the pandemic, over 72.3 mln people have contracted COVID-19 worldwide, and over 1.6 mln have died. Russia has documented 2,681,256 cases of COVID-19, 2,124,797 patients have recovered and 47,391 have died.