BELGRADE, August 11. /TASS/. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that he is ready to be the first person to be injected with the coronavirus vaccine developed in Russia, he told reporters Tuesday when asked about registration of the world's first coronavirus vaccine in Russia.

"I will be the first to take the vaccine when Serbian specialists say it’s good. I am happy if Russians created a vaccine that was expected before November. Our specialists must just confirm to us that it is safe and reliable. It is important that the vaccine appears as soon as possible because it will save our economy," he noted.

Earlier on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia had registered the first vaccine against the novel coronavirus worldwide. Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko informed that the vaccine was developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology.

On Monday, President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte also volunteered to test the Russian vaccine against the coronavirus on himself during a televised address to the nation.

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.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. More than 20 million people contracted the virus worldwide, while more than 736,000 patients died. Serbia has currently reported 28,497 infections and 652 coronavirus-related deaths.