Russia to roll out Chumakov Center's Covid-19 vaccine before end of March - source
MOSCOW. March 16 (Interfax) - Russia plans to roll out the CoviVac coronavirus vaccine, developed by the Chumakov Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), before the end of March, a medical source told Interfax.
"The Chumakov Center's vaccine will be rolled out before the end of March, possibly as early as next week. It means that CoviVac will add to the range of vaccines available in the Russian Federation," the source said.
The CoviVac vaccine will be produced by the Chumakov Center, he said.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on February 20 announced the registration of Russia's third coronavirus vaccine, the one developed by the Chumakov Center, promising to roll out 120,000 doses of the vaccine around mid-March.
Unlike the majority of Covid-19 vaccines developed worldwide, the Chumakov Center's vaccine is a whole-virion one, i.e. it contains the whole Sars-Cov-2 virus, albeit inactivated, rather than its fragments. China has developed a similar vaccine. But like most other coronavirus vaccines, the Chumakov Center's CoviVac consists of two components, which are administrated with a two-week interval.
Russia began a mass vaccination campaign against Covid-19 at the president's instruction on January 18. Russians are currently being inoculated chiefly using the Sputnik V vaccine developed by the Health Ministry's Gamaleya Research Center. Russia has also registered and begun the rollout of the EpiVacCorona vaccine for Covid-19 developed by the Novosibirsk-based Vector Research Center of Russian health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor.
