The Russian COVID-19 vaccine candidate, being jointly developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute along with also the country's Defence Ministry, is place to get registered on August 12, reports suggest. This would be the primary vaccine candidate against the novel coronavirus to become registered.

News reports quoted Russia's Deputy Health Minister Oleg Gridnev as confirming that the development. "The vaccine developed by the Gamaleya centre will be registered on August 12. At the moment, the last, third, stage is penalized," Gridnev said.

The junior health ministry stated that medical professionals and senior citizens are the first to get vaccinated. Mass production of this Russian COVID-19 vaccine is expected to begin in October.
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This development comes days following the World Health Organization (WHO) warned Russian governments to follow established guidelines for generating safe and effective vaccines. The warning came as Moscow moved swiftly to begin producing vaccine doses.

Dr Anthony Fauci, United States' top infectious disease specialist, had also contested the fast-track approach. "I really do hope that the Chinese and the Russians are actually testing a vaccine before they're administering the vaccine to anyone because claims of having a vaccine ready to distribute before you perform testing I believe is debatable at best," he said.

Gamaleya's candidate is a so-called viral vector vaccine which is based on human adenovirus fused with SARS CoV-2's spike protein to stimulate an immune reaction within the body.

It was earlier reported that a number of individuals belonging to Russia's political and business elite was given early access into the experimental vaccine. Russian billionaires and government officials allegedly started getting shots of a potential vaccine as early as April.