The volunteers being inoculated in the final stage of the clinical trials of the Russian covid vaccine would not be hospitalized, new agency TASS reported, citing the head the institute that has developed the vaccine. “The volunteers won’t be hospitalized beforehand. All of them will come and go from their homes,” Alexander Ginzberg, head of the Gamaleya institute told TASS said.
Volunteers would donate blood for testing on the first day of the trials so that a comparison could be done to check the rise in antibodies, he noted. The next blood test will be made in 21 days after the first vaccine shot and in 21 days after the second one, he added.
The Russian vaccine has two separately injected components and the second shot must be made three weeks after the first shot.
Russia has produced the first batch of its new vaccine for COVID-19, the Interfax news agency quoted the health ministry as saying on Saturday, hours after the ministry reported the start of manufacturing.
On Tuesday, Russia became the first country register a coronavirus vaccine, which was named Sputnik V. Russian authorities say that the vaccine has shown effectiveness in in trials and it has been developed on a platform that had been used for the development of a number of other vaccines.
President Vladimir Putin has assured the public that it is safe, adding that one of his daughters had taken it as a volunteer and felt good afterwards.
Some scientists have been skeptical of the fast regulatory approval given by Russia to the vaccine even before final trials.
(With Agency Inputs)