RUSSIA WILL VACCINATE ‘1 BILLION PEOPLE WITH SPUTNIK V’ BY 2020-2021 – INDIA TO JOIN: DETAILS

While the race to develop the safest and effective vaccine to fight the novel coronavirus infection continues, Russia announced that more than one billion people will be vaccinated with Sputnik-V within 2020-2021. India will be producing around 300 million doses of this vaccine, claim reports.

Sputnik V was developed by Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology. The health Ministry granted permission for the vaccine to be used on civilians. The schools in Russia have opened and the government has made all teachers undergo a mandatory test. Temperature checks are conducted and the number of students who attend schools are being regulated to reduce the risk of another spurt in cases.

Further, several countries have entered into an agreement to procure doses of this vaccine. However, the country is currently undertaking phase III trials in a large scale. The trials involve around 40,000 people over a long stretch of time. Although the Russian vaccine became the first vaccine which was launched with a license on August 11 it had not completed the trials.

Several experts warned against it until it underwent phase three trials on a large scale, in order to ensure that the regulatory steps were taken and approved internationally. The results which were published of the first two trials involving 76 participants, recorded that all participants developed antibodies to the virus and recovered faster.