Russians May Get Full Access to COVID-19 Vaccine in about 12 Months

"It is important to understand when we will be able to meet the demand of the country. I hope that it will happen within 9-12 months," he told TASS.

Earlier, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said during a session with Russian President Vladimir Putin that medical workers and teachers would be the first to get the vaccine. The head of the Gamaleya Research Center noted that the amount of vaccine doses will be enough to vaccinate the first groups of the population.

Ginzburg informed that the vaccine would first be supplied to 10-15 regions of the country, however, he did not specify where.

He added that in a about a month, about one million vaccine doses would be produced at three plants producing monoclonal antibodies. "By the end of the year, there will be 1.5-2 mln doses produced. These are tangible and good numbers on the country’s scale," he said.

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.

According to the Russian Health Ministry, experience shows that such vaccines are capable of developing long-term immunity that lasts for up to two years. Head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev pointed out that Russia had received applications for more than 1 bln doses of the vaccine from 20 countries.