Good news is on the horizon. Russia’s first deputy defence minister, Ruslan Tsalikov, announced that the first two groups of volunteers for human trials have successfully ‘built up immunity’.
‘At the time of discharge, all the volunteers, without exception, built up immunity to the coronavirus and felt well. Thus, the first domestic vaccine against a new coronavirus infection is ready’, he said during an interview.
The deputy defence minister added that the Russian military has the experience and potential to develop a new COVID-19 vaccine from scratch, just as it did with a vaccine for the Ebola virus. If all goes well, Russian companies may start mass production of the vaccine by August, according to another Russian official.
In fact, the human trials are ongoing, and the third phase of the clinical trials will commence in the UAE, Turkey, Russia and Africa. Russia plans to produce about 200 million doses of the Coronavirus vaccine in partnership with other countries, the Russian official said without naming them.
Russia plans to manufacture the vaccine in collaboration with the pharma major AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.
There are plans to administer this vaccine after a special patented test which identifies antibodies which will help to fight against the crown-like spikes of the COVID-19 virus.
Meanwhile, COVID 19 cases surged to a record 14 million worldwide, with more than 600,000 people died due to this infectious disease.