MOSCOW, November 10. /TASS/. Russia and Nicaragua are studying possibilities for the production the CoviVac vaccine against coronavirus on the territory of that Central American country, head of the Latin American Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Shchetinin told reporters on Wednesday.

"The discussion is already at a practical stage. [It is aimed at] launching the production of CoviVac, one of the Russian vaccines developed by the Chumakov center, on the base of our joint venture, which was set up on the territory of Nicaragua with the participation of our FMBA (the Federal Medical Biological Agency — TASS) so that it [the vaccine] can be used for vaccination in Nicaragua and other countries of Central America," he said.

According to him, now the agreement between the parties is being completed and technical issues are being finalized.

When asked about possible production start dates, the diplomat said:

"I think it will be soon."

In July 2020, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow is studying the possibility of establishing the production of any of the Russian vaccines in Nicaragua in response to a corresponding request from the Nicaraguan side. According to the minister, the leadership of Nicaragua made a proposal to establish the production of the CoviVac vaccine on the basis of the Mechnikov joint venture in the capital of the republic.

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.