Also Read - Coronavirus: Race for vaccine could leave some countries behind

He said hat phase 3 trials implied switching over to large-scale human trials which will involve thousands of people in Moscow. "And we’ll also start conducting phase 3 in other countries," Dmitriev said, noting that the phase 2 trials would be completed on August 3.
 
Regulatory approval of the vaccine is expected in August-September, he said.
 
Direct Investment Fund forecasts the production of 30 million doses of the vaccine in 2020, or even 50 million if necessary. The vaccination of Russian nationals may be completed early in 2021.
 
Meanwhile, 105 global leaders, including 18 Nobel Laureates, signed a call initiated by Yunus Centre to declare COVID-19 Vaccines as a global common good. The effectiveness of the upcoming vaccination campaign will depend on its universality, said the signatories.
 
But as the race for a vaccine intensifies, rich countries are rushing to place advance orders for the inevitably limited supply to guarantee their citizens get immunised first raising questions about whether developing countries will get any vaccine before the pandemic ends.

Also Read - COVID-19 vaccine: Bangladesh to get priority if China develops vaccine
 
Earlier this month, the UN, International Red Cross and Red Crescent, and others said it was a “moral imperative” that everyone have access to a “people’s vaccine.” But such grand declarations are unenforceable, and the allocation of vaccines could be extremely messy.
 
Global coronavirus scenario
 
Coronavirus cases were first reported in China in December late last year in Wuhan. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a pandemic on March 11. It has spread to all corners of the world since then.

Also Read - Russia goes for clinical trial of coronavirus vaccine
 
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. There have been more than 13,717,900 confirmed coronavirus cases and over 587,000 deaths while over 8,172,400 individuals have recovered.
 
To date, 752,797 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 531,692 recoveries. Russia’s latest data indicates 11,937 fatalities.

Also read: Dexamethasone plays significant role in Covid-19 treatment: Researchers

Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s confirmed Covid-19 cases inched closer to 200,000 as health authorities on Thursday announced detection of another 2,733 new patients.
 
The death toll has climbed to 2,496.