Clinical testing of the vaccine will be carried out at the 48th Central Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense, which has previously been the home to other medical trials. In the past, vaccines against Ebola, Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (MERS), and the flu have been studied and successfully tested at the facility. The first group of volunteers will arrive on Wednesday.
The Defense Ministry trial will be the first time this vaccine has been officially tested. On May 22, it was announced that the same promising anti-coronavirus vaccine was unofficially but successfully tested by researchers, who injected themselves. They reported no side-effects. On May 26, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu promised President Vladimir Putin that the military would complete clinical trials of the vaccine before the end of July.
Speaking about the full range of potential Covid-19 vaccines, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko said that mass vaccination may begin in the fall of 2020, if clinical trials successfully find an effective option.
“Work on a vaccine is in full swing and we are awaiting the results,” he said. “But, for now, we all need to learn how to live, taking into account the risks that the infection poses.”
As of Tuesday, Russia has 423,741 confirmed cases of Covid-19, with more than 5,000 of those dying.