Anna Popova, the head of the Russian public health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, stated on Tuesday that at least 26 different vaccines against coronavirus are currently being developed in the country.
"Globally, 36 vaccines are at the stage of clinical trials, and 92 vaccines are going through pre-clinical trials. In Russia, 17 scientific organizations are working on 26 vaccines", Popova said at a meeting at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Currently, around 50 percent of all the confirmed COVID-19 patients in Russia are either asymptomatic or have only mild symptoms, "thanks to the epidemiological monitoring," Rospotrebnadzor chief added.
She also stressed that, according to official data, there has been no second wave of the pandemic in Russia during the summer season.
"Today, Spain, Germany and France approach the same figure [50 percent of asymptomatic cases], but they lost time when they said there was no [coronavirus] wave in the summer. They believe they had no wave in the summer. They believe there were two waves, while we think this is the same epidemiological process, just different manifestations", Popova said at a meeting at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
After registration of Sputnik V, at least 20 countries, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Mexico, Brazil and India, have expressed their interest in obtaining the drug. Moscow's plans include ramping up production of the vaccine to 200 million doses by the end of 2020, including 30 million in Russia.
DETAILS TO FOLLOW