MOSCOW, April 14. /TASS/. Seven scientific centers in Russia are involved in developing a vaccine against the novel coronavirus and are expected to begin clinical trials soon, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said on Tuesday.

"Work on vaccines is under way at seven centers, and it is the only prevention tactics that will indeed be 100% working," he told the Evening with Vladimir Solovyev talk show on Russia’s Channel One. "Certain first results have already been received, we expect [the vaccines] to be in hospitals in the near future, for clinical trials," he said.

Murashko reiterated that so far there have been no medicine that can be used as a hundred-per-cent remedy against the infection.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 1,900,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 119,000 deaths have been reported.

To date, a total of 21,102 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 1,694 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 170 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.