Covid-19 vaccine may become one of travel requirements in Russia: Ministry

MOSCOW, Sep 11, 2020, TASS. COVID-19 tests can guarantee that a person is not sick with the virus for a limited amount of time, which is why it is likely that a novel coronavirus vaccine may become one of the requirements for international travel over the next several years, Sergei Glagolev, aide to the Russian health minister, said on Thursday (Sep 10), TASS reported.

“Unfortunately, so far, polymer chain reaction and antibodies tests guarantee that a patient is not sick for a rather limited amount of time,” he said. “It seems like COVID-19 is here to stay for years, so a more optimal approach would be to introduce international vaccination schemes or active certificates showing that a person has overcome the illness and has confirmed antibodies or there is certain data about cell immunity,” he said during an online briefing dedicated to the first Russian vaccine against the novel coronavirus “Sputnik V”.

On August 11, Russia became the first country to register a coronavirus vaccine, which was named Sputnik V. Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko informed that the vaccine created by the N. F. Gamaleya Federal Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology had shown its effectiveness and safety on the outcomes of clinical trials. It was created on a platform that had been used for the development of a number of other vaccines. On August 15, the Russian Health Ministry announced the launch of vaccine production.

Later, head of the Gamaleya research center Alexander Ginzburg informed TASS that vaccination of volunteers during the post-registration trials would begin in early September. In total, about 40,000 people will take part in the research, 10,000 of which will receive a placebo dose.

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, over 27.8 mln people have been infected worldwide and more than 903,000 deaths have been reported.

To date, 1,046,370 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 862,373 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 18,263 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.