The theme of the briefing – vaccinations against coronavirus infection
Briefing with Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko and Head of Rospotrebnadzor Anna Popova
Question: Ms Golikova, mass vaccinating against the coronavirus
has started in Russia today. What should people know about this?
Tatyana
Golikova: Following the instruction of President Vladimir
Putin, mass vaccinating has started in Russia today. Russia has a federal law
on preventive immunisation against infectious diseases,
which regulates a system of measures aimed at preventing, restricting and
eliminating infectious diseases by preventive inoculations. The goal is to
create specific immunity against contagious diseases.
Implementing measures on preventive immunisation, the
state guarantees its citizens access to preventive inoculations covered by the
national and epidemiological calendars and free preventive inoculations in
state and municipal healthcare facilities.
What does the implementation of these guarantees mean
in practical terms today?
As you are aware, the coronavirus infection is on the
list of especially dangerous diseases. Hence, there were certain difficulties
in the development of the vaccines, which were related to restrictions on the
work with the COVID-19 strain. Nevertheless, our scientists developed and
registered, the first in the world, the Sputnik vaccine at the Gamaleya Centre,
and the EpiVacCorona in the Vektor Centre. The Chumakov Centre is wrapping up
its research on the CoviVac vaccine.
The Sputnik vaccine is already being used on a large
scale. The Vektor Centre’s EpiVacCorona has been launched into civilian
circulation and used for the jabs. Its large-scale production will start in February.
I would like to speak in more detail about the
Chumakov’s Centre CoviVac vaccine and the possible time scale for its
production and use for the vaccinations.
The CoviVac vaccine is an inactive, whole-virion,
purified concentrated vaccine that is being injected twice with an interval of
14 days. It is transported and stored at a temperature of plus 2 to plus 8 degrees
Celsius. Clinical research has proven that the vaccine is absolutely safe and
has low reactogenisity. The majority of the vaccinated volunteers formed stable
immunity on the 28th day of their first jab.
The Chumakov Centre is expected to present to the
Health Ministry a package of documents required to start the registration of
the vaccine. The earliest time for its registration is February 16, 2021. At present,
the Centre is working on the vaccine for the further release control that will
be carried out under the law after the vaccine receives its registration
certificate.
More to be posted soon…
