MOSCOW, Aug 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Russia claimed it has
developed the world’s first vaccine offering “sustainable immunity”
against the coronavirus, despite mounting scepticism about its
effectiveness as fears grow over a second wave of infections across
the globe.
President Vladimir Putin said the vaccine was safe and that one of
his own daughters had received the inoculation, dubbed “Sputnik” after
the pioneering 1950s Soviet satellite.
“I know that it is quite effective, that it gives sustainable
immunity,” Putin said of the vaccine developed by the Gamaleya
research institute in coordination with Moscow’s defence ministry.
Russia’s health ministry said though clinical trials were not yet
complete and final stage testing involving more than 2,000 people was
to start only on Wednesday.
Western scientists have previously raised concerns about the speed
of development of Russian vaccines, suggesting that researchers might
be cutting corners.
The World Health Organization’s spokesman in Geneva Tarik Jasarevic
said it was in “close contact” with Russian health authorities but
that it was too soon for any WHO stamp of approval.
“Pre-qualification of any vaccine includes the rigorous review and
assessment of all the required safety and efficacy data,” he said.
In Berlin, a spokesman for the German health ministry told
newspaper group RND that “there is no known data on the quality,
efficacy and safety of the Russian vaccine,” adding that “patient
safety is of the highest priority.”
Russia hopes to begin production in September and start vaccinating
medical staff immediately afterwards.
Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian sovereign wealth fund that
helped develop the vaccine, said the doubts about the vaccines were
part of “coordinated and carefully orchestrated media attacks”
designed to “discredit” the country.
He said that 20 foreign countries have pre-ordered over a billion doses.
The race for a vaccine is heating up as nations across the globe
brace for new outbreaks of the disease — even as they try to restart
economies battered by months of lockdown.
Indonesia said Tuesday it would launch a Phase 3 human trial of a
vaccine candidate from China’s Sinovac Biotech.
Phase 3 refers to trials involving large numbers of human test
subjects and is usually the last step before regulatory approval.
Sinovac’s vaccine, dubbed CoronaVac, is already being tested on
9,000 Brazilian health workers.
The WHO says that 165 candidate vaccines are being worked on around
the world, with six reaching Phase 3.
But emergencies director Michael Ryan warned that finding a vaccine
would not automatically spell the end for COVID-19.
“We have perfectly effective polio and measles vaccines, and we
still struggle to eradicate or eliminate those diseases. You’ve got to
be able to deliver that vaccine to a population that want and demand
to have that vaccine,” he said.
According to a tally, the number of confirmed infections
worldwide since the virus first emerged in China late last year has
passed 20.1 million, with almost 737,000 deaths, with that number
expected to surpass 750,000 within days.
New Zealand on Tuesday broke a more than 100-day streak without
locally transmitted coronavirus infections.
“We have all worked incredibly hard to prevent this scenario,”
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said, but “we have also planned and
prepared for it.”
So far, New Zealand has reported just 22 deaths from coronavirus,
although authorities repeatedly warned a second wave was “inevitable”.
The remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan on Tuesday announced its
first coronavirus lockdown after having been largely shielded from the
disease for months.
And in Europe, the European Union’s ECDC health agency urged
countries to reinstate some controls as new cases began to pick up
again.
France has reimposed mask-wearing in certain crowded areas and
tourist hotspots of the capital Paris.
Prime Minister Jean Castex said he would ask local authorities “to
extend as far as possible the obligation to wear masks in public
spaces”.
Castex added that unless the French public acted individually and
collectively, “we expose ourselves to a high risk of epidemic
resumption that will be difficult to control.”
Several French towns and cities have already tightened mask rules,
as have parts of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Romania.
In Spain, authorities have ordered nationwide mask-wearing in
public places and some regions have returned to lockdown.
Spain has added an average of almost 5,000 new cases per day over
the past week — more than France, Britain, Germany and Italy
combined.
In China, the city of Wuhan where the novel coronavirus first
emerged is limping back to normal after lockdowns were lifted in
April.
Business is slow for stall owners at food markets, while a
pandemic-themed exhibition shows off autographed hazmat suits used by
medical workers.
China officially recorded around 85,000 cases and just over 4,600
deaths — a fraction of the world’s total — and has now largely
brought its domestic virus spread under control. — NNN-AGENCIES
