Russia is about to conduct large-scale testing of Covid-19 vaccine on tens of thousands of people

Earlier, on August 11, President Vladimir Putin announced that the Russian Ministry of Health had just approved the world's first Covid-19 vaccine. Sputnik V was researched and developed by the Gamleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology.

Russia is about to test its Covid-19 vaccine on tens of thousands of people.

According to Tass, after 2 months of small-scale human testing, the Sputnik V vaccine was assessed by Russian authorities and scientists as safe and effective. Russia affirmed that the test results showed that the vaccine was effective, had a high level of safety, and had immunity lasting 2 years.

The large-scale trial, which will involve 40,000 volunteers from different risk groups at more than 45 medical centers, will begin next week. The aim is to evaluate the efficacy, immunogenicity and safety of the world's first Covid-19 vaccine.

The information was given at an online press conference of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology - the unit responsible for developing Sputnik V, which took place on August 20.

Currently, Russia, the US and China are the leading countries in the race to research and develop a Covid-19 vaccine.

According to statistics from Worldometers, as of 6am this morning (August 21), the Covid-19 epidemic has attacked 213 countries and territories. In total, there have been more than 22.8 million infected people, of which more than 795 thousand have died. However, the world has also witnessed nearly 15.5 million recoveries.

Many countries have a sharp increase in new infections

It is worth noting that in the past 24 hours, many countries have reported a sharp increase in the number of new Covid-19 infections. The US, the world's largest epidemic area, recorded 41,869 new infections and 982 deaths, bringing the total number of patients since the beginning of the epidemic to 5,742,800, including 177,316 deaths.

Brazil is second only to the United States in the total number of Covid-19 infections. The South American country has added 41,562 new cases, bringing the total number of cases to 3,501,975. The number of deaths in the past 24 hours was 1,115, bringing the total number of deaths since the outbreak to 112,304.

India, the world's third-largest outbreak, recorded a shocking increase of 68,507 new infections, bringing the total number of Covid-19 infections to over 2.9 million. Meanwhile, the number of new deaths in India was 981, bringing the total number of fatalities to 54,975.

Ukraine reported 2,134 new cases on the same day, a record daily increase in the country. The number of new cases in Ukraine increased sharply in August despite the re-imposition of some anti-epidemic restrictions. The total number of infections in the country has reached 98,537, including 2,134 deaths.

Meanwhile, South Korea yesterday marked the seventh consecutive day of triple-digit increases in new infections. Specifically, the country recorded 288 cases, including 276 community infections, bringing the total number of patients to 16,346. Over the past week alone, South Korea has recorded over 1,500 new cases.

South Korean health officials have warned that this week will be crucial in determining whether South Korea faces a new wave of infections. South Korea has now recorded a total of 307 deaths from the disease, a mortality rate of 1.88%.

Norway expands quarantine list

Norway said it would impose a 10-day quarantine on all arrivals from Britain, Austria, Greece and Iceland from August 22, due to a surge in cases in those countries. The same rules will also be imposed on arrivals from Copenhagen, Denmark, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry said.

The announcement stated that in order to prevent the risk of a domestic outbreak, Norway will quarantine all visitors from countries with an average infection rate higher than 20 cases per 100,000 people in the past 2 weeks.

Earlier this month, Norway postponed plans to lift Covid-19 restrictions and urged citizens not to travel abroad. Under the new rules, Norway will restrict travel to about 20 European countries, including France, Spain, Poland and Switzerland.