UPDATE - COVID-19 Vaccine For Children Not Expected This Year - Head Of Gamaleya Research Institute

UPDATE - COVID-19 Vaccine For Children Not Expected This Year - Head of Gamaleya Research Institute

The coronavirus vaccine will not initially be available for children in Russia, as it should first go through a full cycle of trials on adults, the director of the Gamaleya Scientific Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Alexander Gintsburg, told Sputnik

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th August, 2020) The coronavirus vaccine will not initially be available for children in Russia, as it should first go through a full cycle of trials on adults, the director of the Gamaleya Scientific Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Alexander Gintsburg, told Sputnik.

"I really hope that the vaccine will work for children, but according to Russian law, a vaccine can only be tested on children after it has gone through the full cycle of tests on adults, so when the third phase of trials is over, we will be allowed to conduct the 18- tests," Gintsburg explained.

Gintsburg added that the Gamaleya Institute had already started preparing a set of documents needed to begin vaccine trials on children. According to him, the tests might start between January-February 2021, as the third phase of trials on adults will take about five months.

Vadim Tarasov, Director of the Sechenov Institute for Translational Medicine and Biotechnology told Sputnik that before using the vaccine on children, preclinical trials are usually carried out on immature animals, after which a decision is made on the use of the vaccine on children.

"It is too early to talk about using the vaccine on children, they are not a [coronavirus] risk group," Tarasov told Sputnik.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) expects Russia's first vaccine against COVID-19 to be registered within 10 days, RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev said on Monday. According to Dmitriev, Russia's monthly production of the vaccine could total 10 million by the end of the year.