MOSCOW, July 10. /TASS/. Russia’s Vektor State Research Center for Virology and Biotechnologies has successfully completed pre-clinical trials of an anti-coronavirus vaccine, Anna Popova, chief of the Russian sanitary watchdog, said on Friday.

"Colleagues have finished pre-clinical trials. They were successful. Actually, we have practically all the grounds to be sure that things will go as we promised, i.e. we plan to begin clinical trials on July 15," she said in an interview with the Vesti news program on the Rossiya-1 television channel.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova said earlier that works on the development of an anti-coronavirus vaccine proceeded as scheduled.

To date, 713,936 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 489,068 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 11,017 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.