MOSCOW, June 25. /TASS/. Russia’s Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune and Biological Products hopes that after obtaining new equipment in July, the production of its CoviVac vaccine will increase fivefold, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Aidar Ishmukhametov, the Center’s director, said in a televised interview with Rossiya-24 channel on Friday.

"Once the equipment (tanks in which viral material is produced - TASS) comes, we will be able to increase our productivity by five times," he said.

Additionally, Ishmukhametov said that it would take about a month to install and master the new equipment, which delivery is expected in July.

"Let me remind you that currently we here in Russia have neither reactors nor single-use systems [that they use]," he stressed.

Earlier, Ishmukhametov announced that the reactors would be delivered in June, and that their installation would double the capacity of the CoviVac COVID-19 vaccine.

The Chumakov Center’s inactivated whole-virion CoviVac vaccine was registered with the Russian Health Ministry on February 19. Whole-virion vaccines are based either on artificially weakened viruses incapable of causing a disease or killed (inactivated) viruses. It was Russia’s third vaccine certified for mass use.