MOSCOW, November 22. /TASS/. The nasal coronavirus vaccine will help curb the spread of the infection through developing a sterile immunity in people, meaning they will no longer infect others, Alexander Gintsburg, director of the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, the vaccine developer, said on Monday.
"People who will receive an intranasal vaccine will develop sterile immunity. <…> It means that a vaccinated person will not be a carrier of the disease. Now, we cannot guarantee that a vaccinated person will not transmit the virus to other unvaccinated people after breathing in COVID-19 agents and having them accumulated on his or her glands and in the nasal pharynx," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel.
"When we additionally use a nasal vaccine, we will create an extra barrier for COVID-19 at the entrance gate level," he added.
His deputy, Denis Logunov, said earlier that it is planned to begin to use the nasal vaccine in the near future, when its clinical tests are over.
In October, the Gamaleya Center received a Russian health ministry permit for the second phase of clinical tests of a nasal form of the coronavirus vaccine. The Center’s director Alexander Gintsburg said that the nasal form would be an addition to the regular vaccine to ensure an extra barrier to the infection.