Russian president says relatives, associates vaccinated for COVID-19

Russian President Vladimir Putin says some of his close relatives and people in his inner circle have already been vaccinated against the new coronavirus.

“My close ones, my close relatives, people who are working around me got vaccinated. I’m speaking about dozens of people — approximately about 50,” Putin said on Tuesday, according to TASS.

“Almost the entire command of the Russian Defense Ministry and other special services were inoculated,” the Russian president added.

Russia was the first country to register a vaccine against the coronavirus, and Putin announced that one of his daughters had received the inoculation and developed sustainable immunity against the disease in late August.

Russia becomes first country to approve COVID-19 vaccine, says Putin

Russian president says his country has become the first country to approve a COVID-19 vaccine.

Syria’s Assad says wants to receive shot of Russian vaccine

In related news, Syrian President Bashar Assad expressed eagerness to be inoculated against the coronavirus with the Russian-made vaccine.

Assad said that wide-scale vaccination against the new coronavirus was “very important,” adding that Damascus was planning to procure large quantities of the Russian vaccines as soon as they became available.

“I think [the vaccine] is not available for the international market yet, but we are going to discuss it with the Russian authorities when it’s available internationally to have vaccines for the Syrian market. It’s very important, it’s a necessity at these times,” he said.

Chinese vaccine successful

Chinese scientists say an experimental coronavirus vaccine has proven safe.

Researchers from the Institute of Medical Biology affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences said on Tuesday that early-stage Phase 1 clinical trials on 191 healthy participants had been successful and the participants had developed immunity to the COVID-19 disease caused by the coronavirus.

The test group inoculated against the coronavirus, who belonged to various age groups ranging between 18 and 59, suffered no severe adverse reactions after receiving the vaccination, according to the data obtained by the researchers of the institute.

Common side effects reported by those inoculated had been mild pain, slight fatigue, and redness, itching, and swelling at the point of inoculation.

“All the data obtained in this trial support the safety and immunogenicity of this inactivated vaccine and are encouraging with regard to further studies of its efficacy in the future,” the Chinese researchers said in a report.

WHO hopeful vaccine to be ready by year-end

In a separate development, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that a vaccine against COVID-19 may be ready for production and distribution by year-end.

“We will need vaccines and there is hope that by the end of this year we may have a vaccine. There is hope,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in an address to the WHO Executive Board at a special session on the body’s COVID-19 response.

He did not elaborate.

Under the WHO’s supervision, more than 170 countries across the globe have taken part in a joint effort to produce a vaccine for global distribution.

WHO: Over 170 countries have joined COVAX vaccine facility

More than 170 countries have joined WHO

More than one million people have died of COVID-19 since the new coronavirus emerged late last year in Wuhan, China.

Out of the 36 million coronavirus cases reported across the globe, more than two-third have recovered.

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