Coronavirus Russia registers its third vaccine

MOSCOW (AFP) .- Russia has registered its third vaccine against covid-19, a step before the final phase of clinical trials, the Prime Minister announced on Saturday.

“From mid-March, the first 120,000 doses (of the third vaccine) will be available. Today, Russia is the only country to have three vaccines ”, welcomed Mikhail Mishustin during a government meeting.

Called “Kovivak”, this third vaccine was manufactured by the Shumakov research center in Moscow. Russia has already registered the Sputnik V vaccine in August and EpiVacCorona in October and vaccinates its population.

The first vaccine, whose announcement, deemed too rapid, aroused international mistrust, is now recognized by the scientific community after a study published in the medical journal The Lancet, validated by independent experts.

At the moment used in about 20 countries and Russian authorities are trying to strike production deals around the world to meet demand. At the same time, attempts are made to increase the supply of vaccines for Russian citizens.

“We are speeding up vaccine production. More than 10 million doses of Sputnik V and 80,000 EpiVacCorona have already been produced, ”Mishustin explained on Saturday.

The recording of “Kovivak” assumes that he moves to phase 3 of the trials, scheduled for March with 3,000 people, according to official sources.

Unlike the first two vaccines, this uses an inactive virus, a more traditional technology. The Health Ministry explained that it was a recommended vaccine for people between the ages of 18 and 60.

Russia has recorded 4.13 million cases of covid-19, numbers that place it in fourth place in the world in number of infections, behind the United States, India and Brazil.

But their official data is partial since it only counts those who died from confirmed covid after an autopsy. As of Wednesday, more than 82,000 official deaths were recorded in Russia, but the Russian statistical office estimated late last year that there were 162,000 coronavirus-related deaths in the country.

THE NATION