China's Leading Epidemiologist Praises Russia's COVID-19 Vaccine, Russian Embassy Says

BEIJING (Sputnik) - China's leading epidemiologist, Zhong Nanshan, has given high praise to the Russian vaccine against COVID-19 and has congratulated the country on completing the vaccine registration, the Russian Embassy in Beijing said on Thursday.

"Zhong Nanshan has highly appraised the vaccine against COVID-19, developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology. He has congratulated our country on the completion of the state registration procedure", the Russian Embassy in Beijing said in a statement.

The epidemiologist also noted that the vaccine was safe and expressed hope for "successful completion of the clinical trials", the embassy added.

Zhong also pointed to the active cooperation between Russian and Chinese experts on the development of COVID-19 vaccines.

According to the statement, the Russian embassy took part on Wednesday in an online briefing with Zhong's participation. The event, which focused on COVID-19 pandemic prevention and response, was organized by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

On 11 August, the Russian Health Ministry registered the world's first vaccine for prevention of COVID-19. The vaccine was named Sputnik V. The Russian Direct Investment Fund, which has invested over $54 million in the vaccine production with its partners, has received requests from over 20 countries for a total of 1 billion doses of the vaccine. Russia has reached an agreement with five countries on producing the vaccine there.