Russia claims its new COVID-19 vaccine has pre-orders from 20 countries

• Russia has received pre-orders of a billion doses for their coronavirus vaccine from 20 countries.
  
• The development came as Russian President Vladimir Putin, earlier on August 11, announced that his country has developed the first vaccine that works quite effectively"
  
• He said that one of his daughters took part in the experiment and she was vaccinated against the coronavirus.
  

Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko claims that 20 countries have pre-ordered a billion doses of their new coronavirus vaccine, reported AFP. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) is investing in the production and promotion of the vaccine abroad

The development came as Russian President Vladimir Putin, earlier on August 11, announced that his country has developed the first vaccine that works quite effectively" and "forms a stable immunity" against COVID-19. He further disclosed that one of his daughters has already been vaccinated.

The vaccine was developed jointly by the Gamaleya Research Institute and the Russian Defence Ministry. It has two separately-injected components that together are expected to build long-term immunity against the virus. The Russian vaccine against the coronavirus will begin production at two sites - the Gamaleya Research Institute and the company Binnopharm.

Putin made the claim during a government meeting where he described it as "a very important step for the world".

Putin thanked everyone who worked on the first-ever vaccine against the coronavirus and hoped that Russia will be able to start mass production of this medication in the near future.

"I hope that our colleagues abroad will also move forward, and there will be quite a lot of products that can be used on the market, on the world market for medicines and vaccines," Putin was quoted as saying by the agency.

Clinical trials of the vaccine kicked off on June 18 and included 38 volunteers. All of the participants developed an immunity. The first group was discharged on July 15, the second group on July 20.

According to the tally kept by Johns Hopkins University, coronavirus has infected more than 20 million people worldwide.

There are six Covid-19 vaccine candidates that have reached the Phase 3 level according to the WHO — three are from China and the other three include the ones developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, Moderna, and one jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.

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