MOSCOW, August 23. /TASS/. More than 40% Russians are ready to get vaccinated against the novel coronavirus with Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center VTsIOM’s head, Valery Fedorov, said.

"Russia’s new vaccine Sputnik V: Are we ready to get vaccinated or not? 42% say "yes, most likely." 52% - no we won’t," he said on Saturday.

According to the VTsIOM survey, almost 60% of Russians expect the second wave of the pandemic in Russia.

"Will there be the second wave. Only 30% of the respondents believe it is not likely to happen. The majority - 58% think that it will. Moreover, their number grew significantly in the past month, from 52% to 58%," Fedorov said.

The survey was conducted among 1,600 Russians aged 18 and older.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials informed 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, about 23 million people have been infected worldwide and approximately 780,000 of them died. To date, 951,897 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 767,477 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 16,310 fatalities nationwide.

On August 11, Russia registered the world’s first vaccine against the novel coronavirus. The vaccine, dubbed Sputnik V, was developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Health Ministry, and its clinical trials were successfully completed in June-July. The vaccine was developed on a platform that had been used for a number of other vaccines. The Russian Direct Investment Fund said earlier more than 20 countries had already applied for supplies of one billion doses of the new vaccine.