COVID-19 Cases In Russia Near 8 Lakh As Country Says Its Vaccine Is Tested And Safe

Russia on Wednesday reported 6,422 new coronavirus cases, pushing its confirmed national tally to 746,369, the fourth highest in the world.

Officials said 156 people had died of the virus in the last 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 11,770.

AP

A total of 10,424 people recovered over the last 24 hours, bringing the overall number of recoveries to 523,249.

Starting July 13, Moscow will no longer require people to wear masks outdoors as the number of new coronavirus cases has dwindled in the Russian capital in recent weeks.

Moscow lifted restrictions including compulsory travel passes on June 8, a move welcomed by residents who rushed out to enjoy the streets and parks.

Many other regions lifted lockdown restrictions ahead of a July 1 national vote despite the pandemic.

Reuters

Critics have cast doubt on Russia's low official mortality rate and accused authorities of under-reporting to play down the scale of the crisis.

Russia attributes its lower virus death figures to mass testing which has identified many cases with mild or no coronavirus symptoms.

The Health Ministry is now adjusting how it reports numbers to include all deaths believed to be related to the virus even if the direct cause of death was another condition or the patient tested negative.

Russia's vaccine claim

On Wednesday, the Russian defence ministry claimed that the country had developed a "safe" coronavirus vaccine following clinical trials on a group of volunteers. The ministry said 18 people had participated in the research and were discharged without "serious adverse events, health complaints, complications or side effects".

The claim has more questions to it and how effective and safe it really is, seems to be the real question.

On July 13, a piece of news about a Russian Medical University successfully completing human trials of the world¡¯s first COVID-19 vaccine started to surface on news portals and social media.

A vaccine candidate, that was never in the front runners, suddenly came in the forefront claiming that it is effective in fighting against the deadly COVID-19.

While the news was first carried out by a Russian news agency called ¡®Tass¡¯. However, it did not mention that researchers have only completed the first stage of a two-stage first phase of clinical trial. Notably, any vaccine is not considered safe to be used on masses unless it successfully goes through three phases of human trials.

So, the latest claim by Russia's defence ministry of the successful trial and effectiveness of the vaccine holds no ground.