ST. PETERSBURG, June 2. /TASS/. The coronavirus situation is at a turning point in Russia, thanks to vaccination among other factors, Russian Deputy Health Minister Oleg Gridnev said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on Wednesday.
"There is no doubt that we are at a turning point of the pandemic, and naturally, not only in the knowledge of how to treat this disease, but the chance to prevent it has been behind that. And the main prevention measure is vaccination," he said at the session ‘Immunization as an investment attraction point: How will the pandemic change the vaccine development market as a whole?’.
Gridnev recalled that Russia was the first country in the world to register a COVID-19 vaccine, what is more, four vaccines had been approved for use in the country so far. "All of those vaccines have very high efficacy," he added.
To date, over 171.2 million people have been infected with coronavirus worldwide and more than 3.5 million deaths have been reported.
According to the Russian anti-coronavirus crisis center, 5,090,249 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the country, with 4,702,599 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 122,267 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.
The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) is held on June 2-5. The forum, organized by the Roscongress Foundation, is titled ‘Together Again — Economy of a New Reality’. It embraces the SME Forum, the Healthy Life and Drug Security Forums along with the SPIEF Junior sessions. SPIEF-2021 is held in person in strict accordance with health and safety measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. TASS is the official information partner and the photo hosting agency of SPIEF-2021.