Russia planning to get approval for first COVID-19 vaccine in the world by August 10

American news-based television channel CNN has reported that Russia is planning to be the first country in the world to approve a COVID-19 vaccine in less than two weeks by August 10 as several world governments and the World Health Organization are hard at work to combat the fatal virus, which has so far left more than 17 million testing positive and taking over 600,000 casualties globally.

Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, drew comparisons of the country’s COVID-19 vaccine with the launch of the world's first satellite by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1957 and said, "It is a Sputnik moment." He added saying, "Americans were surprised when they heard Sputnik’s beeping. It is the same with this vaccine. Russia will have got there first,".

The vaccine created by the Gamaleya Research Institute in Moscow, Russia, is being planned to be approved by August 10, CNN reported. According to reports from Russia, the vaccine will be first administered to healthcare workers upon the nod being given for public use. Reports also state that the Russian COVID-19 vaccine is still in its second phase of trials in comparison to some of the other vaccines already in the third phase, which are being developed by researchers around the world. The developers of the vaccine in Russia are planning to complete the second phase of trials by August 3, and then proceed to carry forward with the third testing phase in tandem with the vaccination of health workers.

As per reports, the Russian Defense Ministry has stated that soldiers volunteered for the COVID-19 vaccine human trials. The director of the Russian vaccine project, Alexander Ginsburg, had in a statement quoted that he himself has been injected with the vaccine already. Scientists in Russia have stated that developing the vaccine in such quick time has been possible as it is an altered version of one that had already been used to combat other diseases, which they also revealed was the approach being adopted by several other nations and companies around the world.