MOSCOW, April 21. /TASS/. Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine is effective against British, South African and Brazilian strains of COVID-19, the head of the vaccine’s developer said on Tuesday.

"Concerning strains that are widely discussed today, such as the British, South African and Brazilian strains, <...> we can say with certainty that Sputnik V gives protection from the well-known strains that are currently in circulation and have the epidemiological potential," Alexander Gintsburg, director of the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Health Ministry, told the Dok-Tok program on Russia’s TV Channel One.

However, the Russian scientist added that there can be no full guarantee that the vaccine would offer protection against all strains that may emerge in the future.

Commenting on the Siberian strain of SARS-CoV-2, Gintsburg said that the Gamaleya Center was not involved in studies of it.

"It was apparently studied by our Rospotrebnadzor [Russia’s Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing] colleagues, and, I hope, they will create phylogenetic trees illustrating how those new mutations, those new strains are related to those already circulating in our population," he said. "Next, I expect them to evaluate <…> whether those mutations have become more virulent and how <...> their antigenicity has changed over time."

In his opinion, this research should be carried out as quickly as possible, within one or two weeks at best, "in order to decide on how we should treat this newly emerged strain."

Coronavirus strains

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the VOC-202012/01 coronavirus variety appeared in the UK last September. In South Africa, the 501Y.V2 strain has been present since early August, while the P.1 strain has been circulating in Brazil and Japan since December.

Over 190 cases of infection with the UK coronavirus strain and more than 20 cases of the South African strain have been detected in Russia as of April 16, Head of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing Anna Popova reported on April 19.

Back in November 2020, the top sanitary doctor said a new mutated coronavirus variant had been detected in Siberia. Later, however, the press service of the sanitary watchdog told journalists that it was not some exclusive case typical only for Siberia and presumed that this mutation had already been widespread abroad.